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Panday returns to parliament | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Former Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Basdeo Panday took his seat in parliament, a day after his conviction and sentence for infringing the country's integrity laws was overturned. Mr Panday was expelled from the House after he was found guilty of failing to declare an account with a bank in London. But that didn't stop the flamboyant political veteran from turning up, unhindered, to a previously scheduled sitting, even though he faces a retrial on the criminal charges. He was greeted by cheers from MPs of the opposition United National Congress, of which he is the political leader -- and jeers from the government benches. Mr Panday, who was Prime Minister from 1995-2001, made no speeches. The Speaker of the House said he'd asked the High Court for a legal opinion on whether Mr Panday could simply resume his seat and his duties as an MP. Maximum Penalty In its ruling on Tuesday, the Appeal Court accepted the arguments of Mr. Panday's attorney that the magistrate who ruled in the case was biased. But it said that the attorney had failed to show that the charges resulted from government abuse, and ordered a retrial. Mr Panday was found guilty in April 2006 and sentenced to the maximum penalty of two years in jail and fined nearly US$10,000. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Black church in Britain 
