KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Faris Al-Rawi has been tem­porar­i­ly re­moved from the Sen­ate’s Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee pend­ing the out­come of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­volv­ing him­self and fel­low Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates.

Sen­a­tor Al-Rawi was one of three mem­bers re­placed on the Com­mit­tee.

Con­fir­ma­tion came yes­ter­day from Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark, who sits as the Sen­ate Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee’s chair­man.

The Com­mit­tee’s orig­i­nal com­po­si­tion was Mark as Pres­i­dent, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie and Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness in the Sen­ate Dar­rell Al­la­har from the Gov­ern­ment bench. Sen­a­tor Michael Si­mon de la Bastide from the In­de­pen­dent bench and Al-Rawi as the Op­po­si­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

Yes­ter­day, Mark an­nounced: “In ac­cor­dance with Stand­ing Or­der 79, Sub­sec­tion 2, I have ap­point­ed the fol­low­ing mem­bers to serve on the Com­mit­tee of Priv­i­leges of the Sen­ate for the du­ra­tion of the con­sid­er­a­tion of the two mat­ters re­ferred to it on May 1, 2026. Mr Eli Za­k­our in lieu of Mr Dar­rell Al­la­har, Dr Amery Browne in lieu of Mr Faris Al-Rawi, and Ms Sophia Chote, SC in lieu of Mr Michael SV de la Bastide.”

The re­fer­ral of John-Bates and Al-Rawi to the Com­mit­tee of Priv­i­leges stems from al­le­ga­tions of con­tempt of Par­lia­ment.

Guardian Me­dia tried on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions to ask Al-Rawi if he had of­fered to re­cuse him­self from the Com­mit­tee.

Mo­ments be­fore the Sen­ate Pres­i­dent’s an­nounce­ment, Guardian Me­dia asked Al-Rawi the ques­tion in per­son as he made his way to the Red House.

Al-Rawi ac­cused Guardian Me­dia of look­ing for “bac­cha­nal” and to “con­front” him with ques­tions.

“If I make the mis­take of speak­ing about the Com­mit­tee of Priv­i­leges, I will of­fend the Stand­ing Or­ders, and I will be held in con­tempt.”