An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

The at­tor­ney rep­re­sent­ing in­car­cer­at­ed prison su­per­vi­sor Garth Gua­da is set to file a ju­di­cial re­view chal­leng­ing the re­fusal by Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der to ac­cept the de­ci­sion by the State of Emer­gency (SoE) Re­view Tri­bunal to dis­con­tin­ue his Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­der (PDO).

In fact, Krys­tal Primus is hop­ing the court can com­pel Alexan­der, as well as the heads of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and the T&T Prison Ser­vice (TTPrS), to dis­close the in­for­ma­tion in their pos­ses­sion, which they have claimed makes it im­per­a­tive that he re­mains be­hind bars for the time be­ing.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from re­porters on No­vem­ber 12, Alexan­der claimed he had yet to see the re­ports from the SoE Re­view Tri­bunal re­gard­ing chal­lenges by per­sons held on PDOs.

His claim fol­lowed days af­ter the SoE Re­view Tri­bunal de­fend­ed it­self against ac­cu­sa­tions by at­tor­neys lob­by­ing for their clients to be re­leased that they had been de­lay­ing and/or with­hold­ing de­ci­sions.

Un­der the SoE reg­u­la­tions, the min­is­ter can is­sue PDOs for in­di­vid­u­als deemed a threat to na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty or any­one the po­lice be­lieve is about to com­mit an act con­trary to pub­lic safe­ty.

De­tainees can, how­ev­er, chal­lenge their de­ten­tion and ask for it to be re­viewed by the SoE Re­view Tri­bunal.

Primus ap­peared be­fore the SoE Re­view Tri­bunal on Sep­tem­ber 18, dur­ing which time she pre­sent­ed ar­gu­ments for Gua­da’s re­lease, in­di­cat­ing his con­tin­ued de­ten­tion was un­law­ful and with­out mer­it.

Sub­se­quent to the re­view of the de­ten­tion or­der, the SoE Re­view Tri­bunal ac­cept­ed Gua­da’s con­tin­ued in­car­cer­a­tion was “un­nec­es­sary”, and they rec­om­mend­ed a dis­con­tin­u­a­tion of his PDO on Oc­to­ber 9.

How­ev­er, Primus said yes­ter­day, “The Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty has de­cid­ed not to ac­cept the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Re­view Tri­bunal and con­tin­ues to keep Mr Gua­da in pre-tri­al cus­tody, cit­ing that in­tel­li­gence from the TTPS and Prison Ser­vice in­forms his de­ci­sion, and to sum up, he dis­agrees with the Tri­bunal’s as­sess­ment.”

Up­set that nei­ther de­ci­sion had been com­mu­ni­cat­ed to her client, as should have been done un­der the SoE Reg­u­la­tions, Primus said she was on­ly al­lowed to meet with Gua­da ear­li­er this week, fol­low­ing his de­ten­tion on Au­gust 18, as re­peat­ed re­quests by her­self and his rel­a­tives to see him had been met with re­fusal and si­lence by the au­thor­i­ties.

She said, “The rec­om­men­da­tion of the Tri­bunal was not brought to the at­ten­tion of the de­tainee in a rea­son­able time, as Mr Gua­da con­tin­ued to be kept in cus­tody more than one month af­ter such a de­ci­sion was made.”

Say­ing, “We are ex­plor­ing op­tions at this time,” Primus con­firmed Gua­da had em­barked on a hunger strike while in cus­tody at Teteron Bar­racks in Ch­aguara­mas.

She in­sist­ed, “To date, Mr Gua­da has not been charged with any crim­i­nal of­fences in re­spect of the al­le­ga­tions made by the min­is­ter against him.”

“Mr Gua­da, in the ab­sence of his at­tor­ney, was in­ter­viewed by mem­bers of the SIU about in­ci­dents which oc­curred in 2023 and 2024. Per­haps they may ex­plain how they in­tend to pre­vent what has al­ready oc­curred by a pre­ven­tive de­ten­tion or­der in 2025. It’s al­so in­ter­est­ing that the very ar­gu­ments be­ing used to con­tin­ue to de­tain Mr Gua­da did not stand up to the test of the Re­view Tri­bunal.”

Primus main­tained, “Pre­ven­tive de­ten­tion or­ders should be used to pre­vent fu­ture crimes and not to pun­ish in­no­cent per­sons with­out due process of the law.”

Gua­da, of Mal­abar in Ari­ma, is al­leged to have close links with mur­der ac­cused Ra­jaee Ali, who is al­so in­car­cer­at­ed at Teteron Bar­racks un­der a PDO.

Gua­da’s PDO, which was signed by Alexan­der on Au­gust 18, al­leges he is an as­so­ciate of the Rad­i­cal Is­lam­ic Crim­i­nal Gang sup­pos­ed­ly head­ed by Ali, as well as oth­er gangs.

It was stat­ed in Gua­da’s PDO that, “He has been con­firmed to be pro­vid­ing sup­port to oth­er gang lead­ers and mem­bers who are in­car­cer­at­ed in fur­ther­ance of their par­tic­i­pa­tion in, in­volve­ment in or com­mis­sion of vi­o­lent gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing the im­mi­nent­ly planned killing of pub­lic of­fi­cials in pub­lic spaces us­ing high-pow­ered ri­fles.”

The PDO fur­ther stat­ed that Gua­da, “Re­peat­ed­ly fa­cil­i­tat­ed the breach of prison se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures for the ben­e­fit of the gang mem­bers and has been try­ing to en­gage in fur­ther breach­es at their cur­rent place of in­car­cer­a­tion (Teteron Bar­racks).”