During his stint as Attorney General, St. Anne’s Member of Parliament (MP) Brent Symonette admitted that he nolled numerous cases and in his defense, he said they were minor cases that stretched back many years.

Speaking during the debate in the House of Assembly yesterday on a bill to establish an independent Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr. Symonette said, “I signed boxes of them out of way, because I just couldn’t see bringing someone back who was 18 at the time, who is now 28- 30 for one joint. Bring him back from Canada to The Bahamas to waste time,” he said.

“So let’s move on,but I hope the backlog will be dealt with.”

There are a reported 20,000 warrants out for people to appear before the courts.

Mr. Symonette said there needs to be someway whereby those crimes that are over five, ten years or more are dismissed, opposed to continuing to clog the system.

The Free National Movement MP was at the time contributing to the final leg of debate on an Independent Director Of Public Prosecutions, an amendment he sees as crucial considering that on a daily basis, it is the Attorney General who decides who should be prosecuted for a crime.

“We need to find a way to take that power out of an elected official, or an appointed office in the Senate and put them in the hands of duly appointed civil servant,” he said.

“So forever we take away the possibility , the sniff or whatever you want to call it if political intervention into the prosecution or lack of prosecution of any Bahamian in this country today.”