Attorney General, Carl Bethel has defended the government’s decision to hire outside attorneys, in an effort to win its case to demolish Shantytowns.

The AG argued that the cost of doing nothing is far greater, than the cost of this.

“I don’t know why they would broadcast their terror at the thought of us having hired esteemed, experienced private sector counsel.

“That’s our right, and we’ve chosen to put the best foot forward that we could find, and they’re all around the place issuing press releases crying about it.

“Well, I wish them well,” he said.

Rights Bahamas Attorney Fred Smith Q.C. said he doesn’t understand why the government would even seek outside counsel.

“They have very expert constitutional barristers in their chambers who have been doing cases for decades.

“In fact, they have repeatedly beat me in court, so the AG’s chambers, they know their stuff,” he said.

Mr. Smith said he’s been writing to the relevant authorities to put a hold on the August 10th Shantytown evacuation deadline.

“The simple thing is that before you go and destroy 7,000 people’s homes they’ve simply asked the court to put a stop until such time, as they have their day in court, that is civilized behavior,” Smith said.

“And I didn’t just run to the judge to do that, I wrote to the Attorney General’s office, I wrote to the Prime Minister, I wrote to the Minister of Works from the week before.

“Letter, emails, requests to please let us take a moment, we’ll file the case lets determine it in court, in the main time don’t destroy people’s homes.

“But they wouldn’t even answer me. So they can’t complain when people are running to court, and they’re pretending as if they were taken by surprise,” said the Attorney.

Mr. Smith said they will continue with the case.

The government has eight weeks to respond and there will be a trial in due course.

He added that no date has been set and contrary to what the AG has said, the injunction doesn’t expire on the 16th of August, but until the trial or until further order.