The fourth trial of a man accused of importing cocaine is set to go ahead next month despite an impassioned plea by his lawyer that it would compromise the moral integrity of the judicial system.

At yesterday's arraignment session, lawyer Victoria Pearman pointed out that Jamaican Clifton Hopeton Morrison, 39, had been in custody for 17 months as there was no one to sign a surety for him.

Ms Pearman said: "The court has an inescapable duty to secure fair treatment for those who come before it.'' Chief Justice Austin Ward said: "She was talking about her inescapable duty.

It's my inescapable duty to set a date for trial.'' The trial was set to go ahead on September 11 but Ms Pearman said she was seeking to challenge the legality of trying her client "over and over and over''.

Last July, Morrison was found guilty of importing up to $300,000 of liquid cocaine in rum bottles on February 6, 1999, and was sentenced to 12 years. But the conviction was quashed when the Court of Appeal ruled that Puisne Judge Norma Wade-Miller misdirected the jury.

A March retrial was abandoned when a juror was excused and an attempt later that month to start a fresh trial failed when not enough jurors could be found.

Morrison's third trial in July ended in jury deadlock.

Ms Pearman said: "The state, with all of its resources, should not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual.

"It's not in the public interests or that of Clifton Morrison's to make four attempts to try the same individual.'' She added: "My client has to suffer the ordeal of a trial and living life in insecurity and in custody.'' She said repeated trials increased the likelihood of a conviction. She said: "My client has been forced to disclose his defence three times.'' "My position is that the Director of Public Prosecutions in all fairness ought not to proceed with this. We see it as an abuse of the process.''