Cummings lawyer to Solicitor General Cephas: Unprofessional and unethical

By Lincoln G. Peters

The Managing Partner of the Heritage and Associate Law Firm Cllr. Abraham Sillah has sharply condemned the recent statement by Solicitor General Cllr. Syrenius Cephus, referring to defendant Alexander B. Cummings, political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) as a criminal.

 Cllr. Sillah describes the statement from Solicitor-General as being against his client defendant Cummings, which he notes, is unprofessional and unethical, adding that it’s wrong for the Solicitor-General to be prosecuting a matter and referring to the defendant as a criminal.

The defense lawyer says he is concerned about the integrity of Mr. Cummings, saying “In the practice of law, let me be clear, it’s not our business to hold press conference, we know and we will observe the ethical behavior. We are constrained to do this simply because of the many falsehoods that have been said into the press and the public space by the Solicitor General Cllr. Cephus through so-called press release and conference. Mr. Cummings is undergoing criminal trial and the SG is still prosecuting but yet he is calling Mr. Cummings criminal even though judgment has not been rendered.’’

He claims that in one of the Solicitor General’s recent press conferences, Cllr. Cephus was heard even referring to Mr. Cummings as criminal, something, he thinks, is unprofessional, unethical and unprecedented.

Cllr. Sillah continues that there are cases of murder in the country that require the death penalties such as rape and other capital offenses, which had been committed, but the SG has put no concentration, focus and attention on prosecuting those cases; rather,  he’s after a case that has no substance.

“Thousands of dollars have been given to the Office of the SG for the case involving Mr. Cummings and co-defendants because the SG Cephus stated it in the circuit court during the trial. We are just wondering why he is not well paid as Solicitor General to prosecute murder cases across the country, rape but only Mr. Cummings case. With that, I, therefore, see it as a political case. This is a state-sponsored trial or political trial because it looks like it and feels like it. However, we have explicit confidence in the independence of the judiciary and are optimistic of a win”, Cllr. Sillah says. Editing by Jonathan Browne