Omar Shariff, the former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Presidency, who is before the court on trial for failing to comply with a production order contrary to Section 26 of the Anti Money Laundering Act was today granted $1Million dollars bail. Back in January, Shariff and his reputed wife were charged and appeared before Magistrate Azore. They were both required to lodge their passports and report every Monday to SOCU.
Today in the court, his lawyer, Sanjeev Datadin made an application for Shariff’s passport to be returned to him. He told the court that the former PS was granted a scholarship to the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago and was in need of his passport to travel. SOCU special prosecutor, Patrice Henry did not object to Shariff getting his passport back.
Magistrate Azore instructed that Shariff’s passport be returned to him as she imposed a $1M dollar bail to ensure his return to court. The matter will be heard again on September 17th.
Meanwhile, Shariff ‘s lawyer Sanjeev Datadin is expected to make a no case- submission at the next hearing.
The former PS was fired by the Ministry of the Presidency following a probe by the Special Organised Crime Unit into financial crimes he allegedly committed, but the former PS has denied those allegations.