Attorney General Reginald Armour has been asked to study the report of the Commission of Enquiry into the 1990 coup attempt seek legal advice and advise Cabinet on the “various legal options available for consideration by the Government.”
This was revealed by Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh in Parliament yesterday in response to a question from Naparima MP Rodney Charles who wanted to know whether the Government planned to act on the recommendations in the report.
Deyalsingh said the July 27, 1990, attempted coup was the subject of a Commission of Enquiry established on September 6, 2010, and the report by the five commissioners headed by Sir David A C Simmons was delivered to the then President on March 14, 2014, and was laid in Parliament by the then Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
He said she “thereafter did nothing to take any decision to compensate any person(s) who were held hostage, traumatized and injured during the attempted coup.”
Deyalsingh added: “From what we’ve been able to unearth previous Cabinets took decisions related to assistance for victims of the attempted coup the first being on August 20, 1990, which was never fully implemented and the second on January 10, 1991, which too was never fully implemented.”
He couldn’t say when the AG was given the mandate but said it was premature to pre-suppose what the Attorney General would determine. Deyalsingh added that the Government awaited the outcome of the AG’s studied legal advice. (GA)