00:00Speaking on TV6's Morning Edition, former Attorney General Garvin Nicholas thinks it
00:05is high time the state of emergency has ended, as it has affected citizens' rights more than
00:10drawing the intended results.
00:11The state of emergency was put in place on the basis that there were certain threats
00:27or it was necessary to curb the crime rate.
00:31It would have been argued that it was necessary to gather information and to bring successful
00:38prosecutions.
00:40I don't know how many successful prosecutions have been brought as a result of the state of
00:44emergency, but I do know that a lot of people's normal constitutional rights under the legal
00:52process have been curtailed as a result.
00:56Nicholas is of the belief that Trinidad and Tobago has a, quote, fairly mature legal system
01:01and that focus should be placed on getting justice through faster trials, which will preserve
01:06the constitutional rights of citizens.
01:08He does not believe that a state of emergency and preventive detention orders are required.
01:14I do not believe that it is necessary to govern a country by state of emergency and by PDOs.
01:22Anybody who may be arrested on suspicion of crimes against the state must be done because
01:35there is evidence and it cannot be based on supposition.
01:40The former attorney general doubled down on his call for the state of emergency to end,
01:44while adding that the country should be run in the way that was always meant to be.
01:48It is definitely time for us to revert to the ordinary rule of law where we depend on the
01:57constitutional protections for all citizens and that we get on with governing Trinidad and
02:04Tobago in the democratic fashion that it was meant to be governed in.
02:08Dominic Romroop, TV6 News.
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