By Timothy Hendricks- The PPP/C regime has once again laid bare its contempt for the rule of law. What is sold to the nation as a routine extradition case against opposition MP Azruddin Mohamed and his father Nazar is, in truth, a calculated political assassination dressed in the borrowed robes of a U.S. indictment. Attorney General Anil Nandlall, the regime’s chief legal enforcer, has become the loudest cheerleader for this farce – and his words betray a chilling double standard that every Guyanese must confront.
On 11 November 2025, as the extradition machine ground forward, Nandlall dismissed claims of political persecution with contempt. “The only person who is bringing politics into this case is Azruddin Mohamed and his family,” he sneered. He then delivered the knockout blow to democratic principle: “whether the request comes or it doesn’t come, or if it comes and the gentleman is in the parliament, his presence in the parliament, or his status as a member of parliament, does not insulate him or immunise him from legal liability of a criminal kind in relation to the extradition process.” Parliamentary immunity, in Nandlall’s Guyana, is apparently worthless paper when the target is an opposition voice who came perilously close to the presidency in September.
However, the same Anil Nandlall once stood in the dock himself, accused of stealing fourteen volumes of Commonwealth Law Reports – state property worth over GY$2 million – from the Ministry of Legal Affairs. In April 2017, SOCU charged the then-former Attorney General with simple larceny. The books, subscribed through LexisNexis UK for public use, allegedly ended up in Nandlall’s private library. His defence – a dubious “contract of service” with the previous Ramotar administration – collapsed under scrutiny. The case crawled through the courts until, conveniently, the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew the charges in October 2020, days after the PPP returned to power. No trial. No verdict. Just a quiet burial. Nandlall later sued his successor for defamation and pocketed GY$10 million in damages.
The hypocrisy climbs higher. President Irfaan Ali, now enjoying his second term, once faced nineteen charges of conspiracy to defraud the state of GY$174 million in the infamous Pradoville 2 scandal. As Minister of Housing, Ali allegedly orchestrated the sale of prime coastal land to PPP luminaries at giveaway prices while ordinary citizens rotted in squatter settlements. Canada even barred him from entry in 2019 because of the pending charges. Yet the moment he seized the presidency in 2020, Article 182’s immunity cloak descended, and on 14 August 2020 the charges vanished like mist before the morning sun. Nineteen felonies became a footnote; the man who dodged justice now dispenses it.
This is the bitter reality of Guyana today: one law for the PPP aristocracy, another for everyone else. When Nandlall and Ali faced serious criminal allegations, technicalities, immunities, and raw political power erased their records. When an opposition leader is accused – no matter how conveniently timed the U.S. indictment – the full might of the state is mobilised, taxpayer dollars are lavished on foreign prosecutors, and parliamentary privilege is trampled underfoot.
Article 149 of our Constitution promises equality before the law and protection against discrimination. That promise rings hollow when the Attorney General who escaped theft charges lectures an elected MP on accountability, when a President who buried nineteen fraud charges authorises the extradition of a political rival. In a country awash with oil billions yet still plagued by 40% poverty, equal justice is not a luxury – it is the foundation of legitimacy. Without it, Guyana is not a democracy; it is an elected oligarchy where the law is a weapon for the powerful and a shackle for the rest.
