Attorney General Anand Ramlogan is confident a compromise will be reached with police to allow for his cellphone and other electronic devices to be handed over soon to investigate the Section 34 e-mail matter.But he is insisting that only an international IT expert will be allowed to look at them because he is not confident the police will ensure the information remains confidential. In fact, he fears his confidential information might be leaked and used against him on a People's National Movement platform.Ramlogan said so in response to questions from reporters during yesterday's post-Cabinet news conference at the Prime Minister's office in St Clair."In the current climate there are current international best practices, protocols and procedures that must be followed in circumstances such as these," he said.
He said his lawyer Pamela Elder, SC, had refused to hand over his devices on Tuesday because the proper arrangements were not in place for their safety and integrity. Once proper arrangements were put in place, the devices would be handed over, he said.But he insisted no local investigator will be allowed to look at the devices."I have no difficulty [with] an international IT expert whose credibility and reputation are beyond reproach and question going through my stuff," Ramlogan said."The agreement is, that is the only person that can go through the equipment. I have no difficulty with that, but I have a serious problem with anybody else going through your business that contains anything and everything."Ramlogan said his reason for adopting that stance was obvious."We are all human beings and we have a private life, a personal life, but more than that, we have a professional life as a government minister. I am the AG of the country, I sit on the National Security Council."
During the 2011 state of emergency, he said, he went on national television and invited citizens to e-mail and inbox him on Facebook their suggestions to fight crime."A lot of that intelligence was presented by ordinary citizens and the spectrum is very wide–including inside the Police Service, outside the Police Service, drug blocks, et cetera."Ramlogan said he had "to be very careful in my dealings with other countries, other international law-enforcement agencies, that the sanctity and confidentiality of those communications are not unwittingly compromised."
He said he had a responsibility to ensure the identity and content of correspondence from those people were protected.He insisted: "If the Police Service selects an international IT expert whose reputation, credentials and credibility are beyond question, I will give them all the devices."
Speaking on behalf of himself, the Prime Minister and Local Government and Works Minister Dr Suruj Rambachan, he said: "We are not suspects in any criminal investigation. We are in fact voluntarily co-operating with the police because we feel that we are the victims of a massive political fraud and conspiracy...we would like to get to the truth, so that the perpetrator of that political conspiracy and fraud can be caught, charged and prosecuted and that is why we are co-operating."He said everyone had a right to privacy "and my right to privacy is not less because I am a government minister and nor will I wish it in any way to hinder an investigation."Ramlogan said he was prepared to give the devices to the police but not in a carte-blanche manner without any rules and procedures that obtained internationally.
He explained: "There may be things on my system that pertains to the Police Service itself, pertaining to corrupt officers, corruption within the Police Service and so on."So I have to be very careful. You don't just use this as a window of opportunity to have somebody sitting down and going through all your business, only to perhaps get political ammunition to slip to the PNM, so it comes up on a political platform, or to have any police officer or any citizen suspected of being involved in criminal activity suddenly disappear from the scene."He added: "It is not a very simple matter, it is a very complicated matter. It can be made very simple if the police have a defined and clear procedure and practice and protocol."He said things had been made worse by the police failing to honour a promise to return the devices of Gary Griffith, national security adviser to the Prime Minister. Ramlogan said Griffith's devices had been in the hands of the police for about a month."That is unforgivable in the circumstances, when someone is voluntarily co-operating in a situation when they are not a suspect."