The State can expect another avalanche of lawsuits as two leading senior attorneys believe millions can be forked out to pay 16 detainees who were ordered to be freed yesterday due to a lack of evidence.Attorneys Bindra Dolsing and Martin George said the men were slapped with detention orders regarding the most serious of charges and since there was no evidence to link them to the allegations the matter automatically opened a can of worms.
The State claimed the 16 were detained after hatching a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, Housing Minister Roodal Moonilal and Local Government Minister Chandresh Sharma.According to Dolsingh, holding the suspects on suspicion alone was insufficient.
He said: "In order to detain there must be reasonable and probably cause to detain. This means that suspicion must not be figments of one's imagination." He explained that proper evidence should take the form of technical evidence, such as e-mail correspondence and telephone records.Dolsingh said the state of emergency was not designed to detain people "willy nilly" since proper procedures and guidelines should have been followed.
George, however, branded the detention of the 16 as a total abuse of process and demanded that Government explain to the population what really transpired.He said the 16, although they were detained under the emergency, were, however, allegedly involved in specific matters."This certainly opens the doors for any court and I will say definitely that the 16 men can sue," George added.He said the nature of the allegations made international headlines which branded the detainees as political assassins and since there was no evidence it embarrassingly "moved the country from a third world status to a fourth world status.
"This entire scenario agitated the sympathy, the concerns and prayers of the nation... of the entire world."Then you come with your pockets empty and a sheepish look on your face. One has to wonder who is advising these moves. Where are the legal advisers to the Government?" George questioned.He also raised concern that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard was not consulted during the process.
He added: "There was the notable absence of the DPP in the consultation process and it appeared from the word 'go' that something was amiss."It was only in the 11th hour was the question asked: 'What about the role of the DPP?"The State is also facing some $13 million being claimed, thus far, by people charged but subsequently freed of anti-gang offences after the charges against them were dropped.Onnell Dyer and Shawn Paul, who were charged under the Anti-Gang Act 2011, through their attorney Kevin Ratiram, filed lawsuits for a total of $6.4 million.
The two were among 23 persons who were freed last month at the San Fernando Magistrates' Court by acting Deputy Chief Magistrate Rajendra Rambachan after the State did not have evidence to prosecute the charges against them. Dyer, 23, was near the Mon Repos Police Station on August 26 when he was arrested on an outstanding warrant for failing to attend court. He had two cases pending in the Princes Town Magistrates' Court.In his pre-action protocol letter, Dyer said he was taken to the station and three days later was charged with being a member of a gang.Paul, 35, was held on August 24 while at his home after being accused of being a member of a criminal gang. He spent 35 days in prison and was released on September 29. Five people are pursuing legal action for wrongful arrest.