XN000022-1971-10-29 — Page 6

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Friday, October 29, 1971

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE (AMENDMENT) (NO. 3) BILL 1971

Joint Trial Of Two Or More Indictments

A Bill to enable the Attorney General to apply to the Supreme

Court for an order directing the joint trial of two or more indictments

where the persons charged are alleged to have committed an offence which

is common to each indictment. will be shortly introduced.

The Criminal Procedure (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 1971, published

for general information in today's Gazette, seeks to effect this public

time and money saving change.

Under the existing Ordinance, if where one or more accused

persons are awaiting trial on indictment and another person is later

arrested and charged with participating in the commission of the same

offence, two separate trials are required to dispose of a matter which,

if joinder were permitted, could be disposed of in one.

Commenting on the Bill the Attorney General, Mr. D.T.E. Roberts,

said today, the present method entailed considerable wastage of public

money and time.

If the proposed amendment is adopted, the rights of all accused

are protected in that the court may decline to make an order for the joint

trial of particular indictments where it feels that a joinder would result

in prejudice to any accused, he added.

The introduction of the procedure embodied in the Bill would

also enable a joinder of charges in similar circumstances in the District

Court.

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