PM ON TRIBUNAL & OTHER LAWS DURING SoE

CCNTV6

The House of Representatives shall convene on Monday to, in the words of the Government, rafify the State of Emergency....in accordance with the Constitution.  The Prime Minister made the announcement today as he also spoke about the role of the Trubinal in treating with complaints of those detained during the S-o-E.  Juhel Browne reports.

Transcript

00:00The state of emergency by its very nature in the law has a short term. You

00:06have to go to the Parliament on Monday, which is required by law, having

00:11had a proclamation of this nature at the behest of the government through the

00:15Office of the President. Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, before he announced he

00:19would not be seeking re-election in the upcoming general election. Dr. Rowley, who

00:23chairs the National Security Council, spoke about the state of emergency which

00:27took effect in Trinidad and Tobago on Monday, December 30th, 2024. The Prime

00:33Minister was speaking in Tobago during a media conference on Friday, January 3rd,

00:372025, as he sought to allay the fears of many citizens as the nation is under

00:43martial law. We have 15 days within which to go to the Parliament because, as I

00:48said, we still maintain that we are going to be a country under law. The state of emergency

00:54does not vitiate any of our other laws. It creates powers which the security

01:00services otherwise would not have had by removing certain requirements for them

01:04to do certain things. And one check and balance of those powers will be the

01:08tribunal pursuant to the emergency powers for the state of emergency. The

01:13members of the tribunal were announced in the Trinidad and Tobago Gazette on

01:16Friday as follows. Senior Counsel Deborah Peake as the chairman, Senior Counsel

01:22Ian Benjamin as member, and Senior Counsel Lee Mary as member. The Gazette

01:27noted the tribunal was appointed by Acting Chief Justice Nolan Barrow. The

01:33same way the proclamation is done by the President, the protection for the

01:39detainees, done by the Chief Justice, he will appoint in his or her own power and

01:46own right, three people, a three-person panel, to look at what is happening with

01:51respect to persons whose rights have been abridged. The Prime Minister

01:54reiterated the previous statement by Acting Attorney General Stuart Young

01:58that the state of emergency is meant to allow the police service and the

02:01defense force to go after those involved in criminal gang activity and to get

02:06illegal guns and ammunition off the streets without the requirement of a

02:10search warrant. I don't know that the, again I don't want to play lawyer. You're

02:16talking about the person whose door has been broken down. I'm not sure if that

02:20qualifies to go before the tribunal, but what I do know is that a person who has

02:24lost his or her right and freedom, like a detainee, that person can go to the

02:31tribunal. Other than that, the rest of the country's laws remain in force. The

02:35Prime Minister said that after the initial three-month period ratified by

02:39the Parliament for the state of emergency, the government can seek an

02:43additional three-month extension via the Parliament, but the maximum length of

02:47time the SOE can last is six months. Jule Brown, TV6 News.

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