A team of at­tor­neys re­tained by the trade union move­ment in­tends to chal­lenge the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the sedi­tion act be­fore the courts.

Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre of T&T gen­er­al sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette made the an­nounce­ment at a press con­fer­ence Thurs­day, as they ad­dressed Mon­day’s de­ten­tion of Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke by the po­lice for sedi­tion.

Duke is be­ing de­tained for sedi­tious in­tent based on state­ments he made in No­vem­ber 2018.

Duke, who was ward­ed at the Port-of-Spain Hos­pi­tal on Wednes­day, was up to Thurs­day seek­ing med­ical treat­ment for high blood pres­sure af­ter be­ing of­fi­cial­ly charged with sedi­tion.

An­nisette claimed that when the po­lice went to search the PSA’s head­quar­ters on Mon­day they did not have a war­rant. The po­lice, An­nisette said, al­so vis­it­ed Duke’s home where they “ter­ri­fied and ter­rorised” his chil­dren and seized their lap­tops, com­put­ers and tablets.

An­nisette said NATC has con­sult­ed with a team of lawyers head­ed by Nyree Al­fon­so, “with a view of chal­leng­ing be­fore the courts the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the Sedi­tion Act.”

In ad­di­tion to the le­gal chal­lenge, An­nisette said the labour move­ment will pen a let­ter to At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi to re­peal the leg­is­la­tion, which came in­to force in 1920 and was now be­ing used to “in­stil fear and muz­zle trade union­ists, free­dom lovers and po­lit­i­cal ac­tivists.”

He said T&T was go­ing back to a dic­ta­to­r­i­al state where the free­dom of ex­pres­sions and speech by trade union lead­ers and work­ers would now be sup­pressed based on the act.

“Row­ley, enough is enough. You can­not be a leader as ar­ro­gant, pet­ty, vin­dic­tive and thin-skinned. We have to look for a leader who could give as much as he can take.”

An­nisette said the trade union move­ment will have their day on elec­tion where they will make their fin­gers do the talk­ing.

He warned the Gov­ern­ment that they while they are at­tempt­ing to make Duke a “mar­tyr or be­lit­tle him” now, some­day every­one will re­spect him.

“We are call­ing on the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al that if you are se­ri­ous about democ­ra­cy to fast track this act and get it off of the statute books. We are al­so go­ing to write the AG, the ILO and in­ter­na­tion­al af­fil­i­ates seek­ing their sup­port and in­form­ing them of what is tak­ing place.”

NATUC will al­so be call­ing on Op­po­si­tion MPs and In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors to raise the mat­ter in Par­lia­ment next month.