14th of August, 2020. Georgetown, Guyana, South America
Last updated: August 14, 2020 at 12:05 pm
The 19 counts of “allegations of fraud” for which Dr. Irfaan Ali had been dragged before the courts under the previous APNU/AFC administration has today, 14th of August, 2020, been withdrawn. This is according to the Special Organized Crime United (SOCU) of the Guyana Police Force which stated that, given the present capacity of Dr. Ali, they do not wish to pursue the case.
The previous APNU/AFC administration had applied the charges to Dr. Ali as part of their State Assets Recovery Program subsequent to taking office in 2015. Upon taking office in 2015, the APNU/AFC government had set up a State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) which many viewed as a witch hunting machinery aimed at persecuting former (PPP/C) ministers. The Agency (SARA) yielded little results even while costing billions of tax payers dollars – a good portion of which was paid to overseas based contractors.
During the 2020 elections campaigns, the now opposition and then governing APNU/AFC and its supporters had attempted to tarnish Dr. Ali’s reputation by labeling him “the man with 19 fraud charges.” Dr. Ali was at one point refused entry into Canada based on these allegations.
The allegations were that Dr. Ali, who served as the Minister of Housing under the PPP/C administration prior to 2015, had sold a number of house lots below market value.
