http://caricomnewsnetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5052:trinidad-shubas-panday-critical-of-anti-gang-legislation-being-used-in-state-of-emergency&catid=55:featuresTRINIDAD-Shubas Panday critical of anti-gang legislation being used in state of emergencyTuesday, 30 August 2011 05:48 cmc Hits: 228
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Former junior national security minister Subas Panday Monday described as a “double whammy” the use of the anti-gang legislation and the state of emergency to arrest people allegedly involved in criminal activities in Trinidad and Tobago.
Panday, the former leader of the Government Business in the Senate, and who also was a member of Cabinet in the Kamla Persad Bissessar five-party coalition administration, said it was necessary now for the anti-gang bill, which allows for persons presumed to be members of criminal gangs to be detained for 120 days without bail, to be amended.
He acknowledged that legislation on a whole could not be drafted ‘to cover everything”, but the use by the security forces to detain people under the anti-gang law was “lethal”.
“The state of emergency and the anti gang bill is double whammy. It is a lethal portion,” he said on the early morning show on Citadel radio.
Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs said Sunday that 789 people, including 293 gang leaders and members had been detained since Prime Minister Bissessar announced the nationwide curfew on August 21.
Over the weekend, Panday also called on Attorney general Anand Ramlogan to review police statistics on the number of people held for various offences during the state of emergency that also includes an eight hour curfew period.
“I wonder whether the statistics will be speaking the truth because I heard that they held people on warrants. You could hold people on warrants for maintenance and alimony. When you put that into the mix, the statistics might give you a wrong report,” he said.
Panday, the younger brother of the former prime minister Basdeo Panday, was among legislators who voted in favour of the anti-gang law.
He told radio listeners “you can’t draft legislation and see everything …you have experts…look at the bail act see how many times it has been amended.
“As a matter of fact that is the reason why you can amend bills in the event that you have to change it,” he said, adding “when you sit on that side (government) of the fence you have all those experts talking to you…and you hardly look at the other side.
“Having come back on the other side..(and seeing the anti gang bill) being used within a state of emergency it is a lethal portion and that’s why I thought that it needed to be amended,” he added.
The former government legislator said he was also recommending that the government amend the legislation that will now allow for action under the anti-gang legislation to be brought “ only with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) who would have read the information, weight the evidence and he would decide whether to charge you on that.
“In the circumstances as it stands now where they (the police and government) are asking people to “blow whistle’ fellars might have a spite against you and blow whistle and they charge you under the anti-gang legislation.
“These are things that I humbly apologise that I really did not consider,” he said, adding that he would not comment on the merits or demerits regarding the need to declare a state of emergency in the country.
“The government perhaps have more information than I have to continue it or stop it and I am certain based on the information that they have they will act in a reasonable manner,” said Panday, who was relieved of his ministerial position following a cabinet re-shuffle last month.
Meanwhile, an attorney for one person detained under the state of emergency has written to the Police Commissioner requesting information as to why his client had been charged as being a member of a gang under the anti-gang legislation.
Attorney Martin George said his client, who had been detained in Tobago last week, had gone to the island to visit his two-year-old son who is scheduled to undergo surgery in Venezuela. The son lives in Tobago with his mother.
George wants the Canadian born Gibbs to disclose information about his client’s arrest including the name of the gang and exactly where its headquarters is located.
"Please therefore indicate how many persons comprise this gang that our client is supposed to be a member of," the letter stated.
"Please indicate when he assumed leadership of the said gang and please indicate if he is the first or only leader of the gang or whether he succeeded another person as leader and the name of any such person he succeeded as leader.
"Please provide us with a copy of the Station Diary extract which shows that a police officer of the rank of Superintendent or above, within 48 hours or nearing the end of the detention, reviewed our client's detention and had reasons for believing that our client's continued detention without a charge was necessary for securing or preserving evidence and applied to a Magistrate for a detention order."
Gibbs has been given until Tuesday to provide a response.
CMC/ir/pr/2011
