Category Archives: Law

DPP Orders Probe into Prison Litigations

CONSPIRACY

By Jada Loutoo
May 08, 2014 – newsday.co.tt

Director of Public Prosecutions Roger GaspardDIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, says he is of the “unflinching view” that there is more than sufficient material in the ruling of High Court Master Patricia Sobion-Awai in the Jamal Sambury assault claim against the State to warrant a criminal investigation of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice and conspiracy to defraud the State of Trinidad and Tobago.
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Gov’t $2.5M Reward, Amber Alert following Seetahal’s Murder

Dana SeetahalSpeculations continue in the aftermath of the killing of Attorney, Journalist and Law Lecturer Ms Dana Seetahal as a stunned nation continues to reel from the shock of her death.

Police reports now show that the weapon, which would have used the caliber of ammunition shells found on the scene, is used mostly by military personnel.

CCTV camera footage is being scoured at this time but it is being reported that the Wingroad vehicle used in the killing may have been fortified with bags of cement to prevent it from moving should she have attempted to ram the vehicle after it blocked her access.
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ASSASSINATED

By Nalinee Seelal
Monday, May 5 2014 – newsday.co.tt

Dana SeetahalAS PROMINENT Senior Counsel, Dana Seetahal, became a statistic in the country’s continuing grim murderous run yesterday, her assassination has triggered an emergency meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) for today and the posting of a million dollar reward for her killers, while police are reportedly examining video footage taken by someone who came close to the scene while the crime was in progress.

In addition to summoning the meeting of the NSC, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar revealed yesterday she had spoken with the Honourable Chief Justice Mr Justice Ivor Archie, and they have agreed to meet, “in order to devote attention to necessary reforms in the criminal justice system and security issues connected there with.” (SEE PAGE 5)
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Another scandal we’ll forget

By Raffique Shah
May 04, 2014

Raffique ShahDoes anybody remember or know what happened with the scandalous “Section 34” issue? I recall that in the euphoria of the 50th anniversary of Independence, on August 31, 2012, some powerful person had that section of the Administration of Justice Act surreptitiously proclaimed, thereby opening a gateway to immunity (well, almost) for persons charged with corruption in the Piarco Airport matter.
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Corporal Punishment: Shame, Fear and Unreasoning

By Iniko Ujaama
April 24, 2014 – africaspeaks.com/reasoning

lettersI watched the video of the Trinidadian parent who recently posted the video of herself beating her daughter over posting some ‘sexy’ pics on facebook and the subsequent video of her two daughters(an elder sister and the one beaten) explaining away and justifying the mother’s actions.
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Police probing Chandresh for assault of ex-girlfriend

Tourism Minister Chandresh Sharma

By Shaliza Hassanali
March 30, 2014 – guardian.co.tt

Tourism Minister Chandresh Sharma is under investigation by the police for the assault of his former girlfriend. Sacha Singh, the managing director of AMS Biotech Security Concept and AmSure T&T Ltd, who is in her late 20s, met with officers of the St Joseph Police Station on Friday at her Piarco business and gave a statement of Sharma’s alleged physical abuse during an altercation on March 12 at Grand Bazaar. Though a police investigation into such a matter can take as long as six months, the Sunday Guardian learnt that because of the high-profile nature of the matter it is being fast-tracked. ASP Joanne Archie, public information officer of the T&T Police Service, yesterday confirmed that an investigation was being conducted by the police against Sharma: “Statements were recorded and the investigation is in progress.”
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Constitutional Commission (CRC) Re-Invented the Wheel

By Stephen Kangal
February 14, 2014

Stephen KangalHaving submitted what is no more than disappointing glorified minutes or executive summary of the deliberations of the CRC on the road map to reforming the existing 1967 Republican Commission without appending the requisite draft Working Paper it appears that the remit of the CRC in its own admission has ended. But why is the CRC still bent on holding further consultations on previous consultations when it admits it has completed its job? According to the CRC the next step to be taken falls within the ambit of parliamentarians and the population.
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De ‘bust’ buss

By Raffique Shah
February 02, 2014

Raffique ShahWithin days of the announcement by US authorities that they had intercepted 700-odd pounds of cocaine shipped from Trinidad to Norfolk, Virginia, and the well-publicised arrival here of a number of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, I sensed that something had gone awfully wrong.
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Three eminent jurists

By Raffique Shah
January 25, 2014

Raffique ShahIn my column last week, in recounting the legal encounters between the late Karl Hudson-Phillips and the progressive forces during the events of 1970, I made a serious omission that I now seek to rectify.

I mentioned the condonation pleas that set the mutinous soldiers free—their genesis and the attorneys who successfully pursued them. Readers need note that the court martial over which Nigeria’s Col Theophilus Danjuma presided, rejected the pleas (in bar of trial), which were made by Rex Lassalle, Maurice Noray and myself. The trial proceeded, and most of the soldiers were found guilty of mutiny and other offences, and sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment.
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How is applying for an A2 Visa Breaking US Law?

By Stephen Kangal
January 24, 2014

Stephen KangalForeign Minister, the Honourable Winston Dookeran posits that were the T&T Consulate in New York to continue to apply to the State Department for the granting of an A2 US Visa on behalf of a member of its locally recruited staff (LRS), that would “breaking US law…” Well the Consulate under different regimes in POS has been applying and the State Department has been granting these A2 visas or variations of stays to it and many other foreign consulate accredited to the State of New York.
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