Released on = September 11, 2006, 4:41 am

Press Release Author = Communications Unit, Office of the Prime Minister, St. Kitts

Industry = Government

Press Release Summary = BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, SEPTEMBER 11TH 2006 (CUOPM) - St.
Kitts and Nevis gets a new Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs on Monday.


Press Release Body = 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.

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.

Web Site = http://www.cuopm.com

Contact Details = Mr. Erasmus Williams
Press Secretary To The Prime Minister Of St. Kitts & Nevis
Government Headquarters
Church Street, Basseterre
St. Kitts

Tel: (869) 465-9698
Fax: (869) 466-9997

Email: sknpmpresssec@hotmail.com
sknpmpresssec@cuopm.com