Process server Mark Adams says he was abused by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and given the same circumstances as obtained in attempts to serve election petition on Al-Rawi and others he will do the same way again.
Adams said so during a news conference called by attorney and Opposition Senator Wayne Sturge at his office on Richmond Street last evening to clarify claims by Al-Rawi that the document was served to Al-Rawi during the funeral service for former PNM government minister Errol Mahabir at St Paul’s Anglican Church, San Fernando, last Friday.
He said Al-Rawi was abusive to him when he attempted to present the document outside the church after the funeral service.
“So when I was outside with him he stopped every single person coming out of the funeral and it became the Al-Rawi show. I am standing here and he continues to belittle me and say how despicable he thinks I am.
“And I am a stupid lil boy and how dotish he finds I am and how disappointed he is in me as a human being and he even made comments to the effect that he doubted whether I was human at all,” Adams told reporters.
“So he was abusing (me), making me a public spectacle, ridiculing me consistently. I stood there, I took the insults, I took the abuse,” he added.
Adams said after walking away he was followed by a security officer.
He said he told the officer he had to serve the document but he was told by the officer “not here.”
Adams said he subsequently “laid the document at his (AG’s) feet.” He said he “did not mean disrespect to the Attorney General.”
He said the document “was not thrown, it was laid at his feet. I actually bowed and laid the document at his feet.”
He also said two other ministers were verbally abusive to him.
Contacted for comment by CNC3 last evening, Al-Rawi said Adams’ claims were “entirely untrue.”
Admitting he heard the news conference live, Al-Rawi said: “None of these events (claims) are true.”
He said Adams “did engage in service in the middle of a funeral service and that is entirely inappropriate.”
Al-Rawi said he did not think anyone in the country would believe he “will berate a human being in the manner that this human being suggests I did.”
He said the development was “an extension of a desperate attempt by the UNC to make some sense out of their political venture (as) this election petition is destined to be a severe failure on the part of those who seek to prosecute it.”
Sturge said two attempts were unsuccessfully made to serve Al-Rawi at the church but “the service was effected outside the church close to the roadway.”
Sturge said more than one attempt to have the petition served on Al-Rawi and five other Government MPs were rejected by the respective MPs.
The petitions following the mounting of a legal challenge to the results in the six constituencies — San Fernando West, La Horquetta/Talparo, Toco/Sangre Grande, St Joseph, Tunapuna and Moruga/ Tableland — arising out of the legal challenge to the September 7 general election results in six constituencies.
He said letters were sent to both the PNM general secretary Ashton Ford and attorney Michael Quamina seeking assistance in arrangements to present the document to the respective MP.
“They did not agree to accept service in the dignified manner and in the circumstances the process server was hired to effect service,” Sturge said, adding that “thereafter the cat-and-mouse game ensued.”