The Police Commissioner said on the Morning Edition programme that attorneys of detainees at military bases during the State of Emergency have been issuing death threats to their own attorneys.
But an attorney for one of those detainees says both he and his instructing attorney have not received any death threats from anyone... including their own client.
00:00On the TV6 Morning Edition program on Monday, Police Commissioner Alastair Govaro spoke about what he identified as a key success of the removal of certain prisoners from the maximum security prison or MSP in Aruka to detention centers in two local military bases during the state of emergency.
00:17Right now we're having a 35 percent decrease in the homicide rate just from removing these gentlemen. And then we have them angry with their own attorneys that they are not able to get them out from what they are now labeled Guantanamo Bay. I'm not sure where they got the name from, but they are labeling it Guantanamo Bay to get them out from Gitmo and put them back in the MSP. I'm not sure what they have in the MSP that they love so much.
00:42A reference to a U.S. military prison in Cuba. As he continued to speak on the Morning Edition about the detainees at the military bases in Trinidad and Tobago, the top cop did not identify any of them or their attorneys by name.
00:56And the same attorneys who are fighting with them, they are threatening to kill them. And these attorneys seem blinded by this, you know, blind loyalty. But at the end of the day, we shall do what we need to do.
01:10I would have directed my men to do a duty of care and warn these attorneys, listen, your life is in danger. Take precautionary measures. If they want to listen, they can listen. If they not, that's up to them.
01:24On Monday afternoon, Karen Ramkalawan, an attorney for one of the detainees, Raji Ali, said in a statement that police officers attached to the special intelligence unit, intelligence department, visited his office and informed him that they had received intelligence indicating a credible threat to his life purportedly originating from his client.
01:44Mr. Ramkalawan also made reference to what he said was a statement from the Homeland Security Minister.
01:51Mr. Ramkalawan then said he wished to state in clear terms that the information disseminated publicly that Raji Ali has threatened his attorneys from a military base is false and misleading.
02:03Mr. Ramkalawan further said that at no point has he nor his instructing attorney, Anwar Hossein, been threatened by anyone and that they have been retained solely to challenge a transfer decision made pursuant to Section 7 of the Prisons Act and to pursue constitutional proceedings.
02:22Mr. Ramkalawan emphasized that the code of ethics governing the legal profession in Trinidad and Tobago mandates that an attorney at law must defend their client's interests without fear of judicial disfavor or public unpopularity.
02:39The attorney declared his concern extends to what he called the overreach of the police service.
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