The passport application and signatures of former Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield was in focus in court on Tuesday as the trial into the 2020 General and Regional Elections continued.
The trial is being heard before Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
A handwriting expert was among four new witnesses who gave evidence on Tuesday.
The expert was accepted by the court as an expert in handwriting analysis and told the court that he had examined signatures appearing on documents connected to Lowenfield, including a passport application replacement form and an affidavit relating to a lost passport.
Lowenfield’s passport application became an issue in the 2020 election fraud trial because investigators used it to obtain a verified handwriting sample for comparison against official electoral documents.
During a recorded 2020 Police interview shown in court, former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield declined to answer whether he owned a Guyanese passport.
Investigators had informed Lowenfield that they had already secured his official passport application form.
The court heard on Tuesday that the passport application signature was therefore compared with signatures appearing on other documents related to the elections.
And, the expert told the court that he found similarities in the signatures and based on his examination, formed the opinion that they were written by the same person.
The court also heard evidence concerning a March 13 declaration, where a passport application form and a police station diary bearing the signature of Carol Smith-Joseph was also reviewed.
Both Lowenfield and Smith-Joseph are defendants in the case.
The handwriting expert said he compared the signatures on those documents and concluded that they too were authored by the same person.
The expert’s testimony is expected to continue on Wednesday.
Also giving evidence was Inspector Rochelle Peters, who testified about the passport application in Lowenfield’s name and the operation of the passport system.
Peters told the court that she had previously worked at the Central Immigration and Passport Office in the data-entry section, where she served as a supervisor. In October 2020, while stationed at the Eugene F. Correia International Airport, she was summoned to the Criminal Investigation Department and interviewed about Lowenfield’s application for a new passport.
Peters told the court that the application had been accepted by then Constable Primo on August 20, 2012.
She explained that on that day she had entered her fingerprint into the passport system to allow then-Constable Crandon, who was a new staff member, to operate the system.
According to Peters, the passport system could not be activated without a fingerprint being entered and did not have a password feature.
She said her fingerprint activated the system, giving Crandon access to operate it and allowing the passport application process to proceed.
Peters further explained that she had been granted the relevant access privileges by technical personnel from Canadian Bank Note, which was responsible for technical aspects of the passport system at the time.
Tuesday’s proceedings also dealt with a separate legal issue concerning forensic financial analyst Terrence Jaskaran.
The defence attorneys requested an opportunity to present legal arguments on whether Jaskaran should be recognised as an expert in accountancy, effectively asking the court to revisit an earlier ruling on the issue.
The prosecution was given seven days to respond to the arguments. The court will then determine whether the previous ruling should be revisited or allowed to remain in force.
The elections trial continues on Wednesday with several witnesses expected to return to complete their evidence.
Source: NEW ROOMS SITE
