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| Outgoing Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Hon. Delano Bart (seated left) with Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas and other Cabinet ministers at the swearing in of the Third St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Government in October 2004.
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BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, SEPTEMBER 11TH 2006 (CUOPM) - St. Kitts and Nevis gets a new Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs on Monday.
A statement from the Cabinet Secretariat said the present holder of the post, Hon. Delano Bart retires today (Monday) after 11 eleven years of sterling service to the Government and people of St. Kitts and Nevis. On Friday, at what was his last sitting of the National Assembly, lawmakers bade the outgoing Attorney General farewell.
Bart, a Kittitian British-trained lawyer has served in three Cabinets of St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas. He attended his last meeting of the National Assembly on Friday and was bade farewell by members
Prime Minister Douglas has announced Bart's successor as Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr. Dennis Merchant.
Mr. Merchant, a British trained lawyer will be sworn in at 10 "o' clock this morning at the Governor General's Residence by Resident High Court Judge, Mr. Justice Frances Belle.
The administrative process pertaining to the naming of the new Director
of Public Prosecutions has been initiated and Mr. Merchant's successor
will be announced shortly.
Born at Bird Rock, St. Kitts, Merchant attended the Basseterre High School. After leaving school in 1976, he took up employment as Clerk to the Magistrate in St. Kitts before travelling to England to attend Matthew Bolton Technical College in 1980. He attended the University of Central England in Birmingham, where he obtained his law degree in 1986.
He qualified as a practicing solicitor at the College of Law in England in 1989 and successfully completed the Legal Education Certificate at the Hugh Wooding Law School in 1995.
~~Adz:Right~~Mr. Merchant is a former civil servant in the Department of Health and Social Security in Birmingham and is a former trainee solicitor at Robert Thompson & Partners; and Ceres & Co (1988 to 19990); a practicing Solicitor at Ralph Haeems & Co (1990 to 1992); and Managing Director and Head of the Criminal Department at Ratip Partnership, Solicitors in East Ham from 1995 to 1996).
After practicing for a year at Worrel Nero Attorneys in the United States from 1996 to 1997, Mr. Merchant returned to St. Kitts and served from 1997 to 1998 as Senior Crown Council in the Attorney General's Chambers; as Acting Director of Public Prosecutions from 1998 to 1999; and from 1999 to present as Director of Public Prosecutions.
