Shadow Transport Minister Trevor Moniz yesterday told the new DPP to shape up - or ship out.

Mr. Moniz said Director of Public Prosecutions Kulendra Ratneser had to be prepared to subpoena trial witnesses and charge them with perjury.

"It is not his job to be nice to people,'' he said.

He spoke in the wake of an interview between Director of Public Prosecutions Ratneser and the Bermuda Sun on Friday.

In the article, Mr. Ratneser focused on the difficulty in Bermuda of getting witnesses to testify, particularly in cases such as the murders of Tekle Mallory and Shaundae Jones - both cases where literally crowds of people were present at the scene of the murders, yet witness testimony was lacking.

Jahni Everett Bean and Quincy Stanley Brangman were both acquitted of the 2001 murder of Tekle Mallory outside the popular late-night eatery Ice Queen. The trial of the murder of Shaundae Jones, who testified as a witness in the Tekle Mallory case, is poised to go ahead with no eye-witnesses, despite the fact that around 100 people were present outside Club Malabar night-club when he was shot. "That is one of the serious problems we are faced with," Mr. Ratneser said in the article. "There are a number of cases due to come up for trial. No eye-witnesses. If those people are not prepared to come and give evidence in the witness box, you have lost a valuable chunk of material on which the Crown relies."

Mr. Ratneser also recounted a situation where Police identified an eyewitness on a surveillance camera and took his statement. However when the DPP was preparing him for trial, he refused to testify - even bringing his mother to the DPP's office. "He said, 'That is my statement but I don't want to give evidence,'" said Mr. Ratneser in the article.

Saying he could have forced the witness to testify by getting a summons, Mr. Ratneser added the witness could simply have told the court he did not remember anything. That meant, he said, that he would be unable to lay perjury charges. "There is nothing I can do so the prosecution caved in and is starved of that evidence."

To The Royal Gazette, Mr. Ratneser also cited the Ice Queen murder trial as an example, saying in that case a number of people gave statements, then said they could not remember what happened. And while it was possible to subpoena a witness, he did not feel it would help the Crown's case once that witness stood on the stand and said: "I can't remember".

They would be treated as a hostile witness, he said, and would add nothing of value to the Crown. Any statements they had made previously could not be admitted into evidence unless there was consent from both prosecution and defence, he added - and no defence counsel would ever admit anything which could harm their client.

"We need witnesses who are prepared to come and tell the truth," he said.

That was not enough for for former Bar Council president Mr. Moniz, who first spoke out against Mr. Ratneser's policy on Friday during the motion to adjourn in the House of Assembly.

Mr. Ratneser was under an obligation as a public officer to subpoena such witnesses, he said. "You let one person off, you let everyone off."

And as for Mr. Ratneser's comment that he was unable to charge witnesses with perjury: "Why on earth not? It's your job!"

Yesterday Mr. Moniz elaborated. Regarding the man who refused to testify, Mr. Moniz said he should have been subpoenaed.

"That is his job as the DPP - it's not his job to be nice to people."

While pointing out he himself was a civil and not a criminal lawyer, Mr. Moniz said that he had criticised former DPP Khamisi Tokunbo in the past not because he was a member of the PLP, but because he was doing his job poorly.

"This new guy is heading down the same path.

"What he's saying is that people don't need to give evidence in Bermuda because I'm not going to force them," he said.

People had to understand that there were penalties for perjury, he said.

"If there was no law against speeding everyone would speed. Why do people do jury duty? Because they're forced to! " Giving evidence, he continued, is the same: it is a burden which people would not do if they were not forced to. But for the greater good of society it is something which must be done.

"He (Mr. Moniz) is not wrong, he's quite right," said Mr. Ratneser. "But getting them into court doesn't solve the problem. We need credible witnesses."

Mr. Moniz did not relent. Reluctant witnesses should be subpoenaed, marched into court and told the penalties for perjury, he said - and if they continued to hold back or change their evidence, they should be prosecuted separately for perjury. "They can't admit their statement in that trial, but they can make the witness pay the price," he said.

Saying Bermudians were seeing a strong connection between the murders of Tekle Mallory and Shaundae Jones, Mr. Moniz added: "The ultimate cost to that young man (Shaundae Jones) may have been his life."

"It's a tough job, a hard job (being DPP) but it's got to be done, this is part of it. You've got to be tough... You have to set a standard, a signal, a warning.

"The bottom line is I think he (the DPP) has to take a tougher stance."