00:00As critics denounce the government's push to designate Hezbollah, Hamas and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard as terrorist entities,
00:09a move they view as propagating the U.S.-Israel agenda, Opposition Senator Faris al-Rawi is lending his support.
00:17Not at all. On this occasion, I would say terrorism is real. The way the law is drafted is that
00:24terrorism isn't just ISIS-based, as it used to be largely perceived to be.
00:28The I-Court has ordered the freezing of all local property affiliated with the groups, in accordance with the Anti
00:35-Terrorism Act.
00:36It's a continuation of the work that I did, certainly. I have no criticisms on that. I commend that.
00:41But after that is done, you still need to go to the prosecution of evidence. And that's where my complaint
00:48comes about.
00:49What is missing is witness protection. What is missing is anonymous witness evidence.
00:54What is missing is the use of CCTV camera evidence. What is missing is the Crown Prosecution model that we
01:01have created. So, all things have stopped.
01:04The former Attorney General acknowledges that there are far-reaching legal implications.
01:10Is there any legal implications for persons who may have donated, you know?
01:15Of course. Yes. Of course there are. And that's, if you look at the literature around the world, you'll see
01:20in the United Kingdom, there were NGOs that donated to Palestinian entities that then turned out to be listed and
01:27there was this whole confusion.
01:28That's always part of the course. But the purpose of listing is so that it's known in our courts and
01:35that you can freeze assets and deal with individuals that money is flowing through.
01:39However, another opposition senator is raising questions as to the method by which the entities were deemed terrorist organizations.
01:47What we've seen from the government so far is a lot of failure to disclose information, failure to be very
01:54transparent with the people of Trinidad and Tobago, failure to be transparent in parliament with questions that are asked.
01:59So, as of right now, we still have no idea what the government's policy looks like in terms of what
02:07they are designating as terrorist organizations.
02:09We have no idea what the government's stance per se is and the whole Iranian conflict taking place right now.
02:16So, based on the government's track record so far, based on the lack of information, the lack of transparency that
02:23we've gotten coming out from them,
02:24I imagine that there hasn't been enough information disclosed in order to make those designations.
02:30Meantime, Independent Senator Senior Counsel Sophia Choate is calling for victims of terror to be prioritized.
02:38My concern is this, that people who donate to charitable organizations for victims of the genocide in Gaza and victims
02:49of war should not be deprived because they are charitable organizations.
02:54These organizations are considered to be terrorist organizations.
02:58The names of the local entities said to be linked to the terrorist groups have been redacted in the caseted
03:05notice of the designation.
03:07Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
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