RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Se­cu­ri­ty ex­perts say the ex­tra­di­tion of Brent Thomas from Bar­ba­dos last Oc­to­ber was un­prece­dent­ed and could be clas­si­fied as a rogue op­er­a­tion.

The com­ments came af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley de­nied knowl­edge of the op­er­a­tion say­ing he first heard about it from the me­dia.

A well-placed se­cu­ri­ty source who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty told Guardian Me­dia that as head of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, the Prime Min­is­ter should have known about the ex­tra­di­tion, es­pe­cial­ly since Min­is­ter Stu­art Young con­firmed that Thomas was brought back to Pi­ar­co by an air­craft as­signed to the Re­gion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Ser­vices (RSS), based in Bar­ba­dos. 

“Trinidad and To­ba­go is not a sig­na­to­ry to the RSS. The Cari­com mem­ber states form­ing the RSS are Bar­ba­dos, An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, Do­mini­ca, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lu­cia, and St Vin­cent & the Grenadines. There­fore, for an RSS air­craft to be used, the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty must have re­quest­ed this be­cause an RSS air­craft can­not come in­to T&T’s sov­er­eign space with­out per­mis­sion,” the source ex­plained.

“The Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice does not have the au­thor­i­ty to di­rect an RSS air­craft in­to our sov­er­eign space. The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty must re­quest this.”

The RSS has an air wing with two C26A air­craft which are used pri­mar­i­ly for counter-drug op­er­a­tions and it is not usu­al for it to be used for such mat­ters as Thomas’s ex­tra­di­tion, the source fur­ther said.

“It is not the cor­rect pro­ce­dure for an RSS to be used for a mat­ter like this. It is baf­fling that the Prime Min­is­ter did not know about it and if he did not know, we can as­sume that this was a rogue op­er­a­tion,” the of­fi­cial added.

An­oth­er se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cial said con­cerns have al­so been raised about whether the pro­ce­dures were cor­rect and whether Thomas was tak­en un­der duress or whether he was ac­com­pa­nied by any­one.

An­oth­er na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert who al­so re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said usu­al­ly com­mer­cial air­lines are used for ex­tra­di­tion mat­ters. 

“We are con­cerned about what lev­el of pro­fes­sion­al­ism was ex­pressed dur­ing the time of Thomas’s al­leged ab­duc­tion out of Bar­ba­dos.”

Asked what is the usu­al pro­ce­dure, the se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert said, “ What has hap­pened be­fore is that peo­ple have been ar­rest­ed based on in­for­ma­tion shar­ing and they were brought back with an es­cort via the com­mer­cial air­lines. That au­tho­ri­sa­tion has to come from For­eign Af­fairs and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty.

“Send­ing an air­craft for some­one is some­thing I have nev­er heard of. When you are mov­ing away from what is nor­mal pro­ce­dure there is cause for con­cern for law-abid­ing cit­i­zens,” the source added. 

The ex­trac­tion did not fol­low nor­mal pro­ce­dures–Om Lal­la

Mean­while, at­tor­ney Om Lal­la said the al­leged ab­duc­tion of Thomas was of grave con­cern as the pro­ce­dures used were a vi­o­la­tion of the Ex­tra­di­tion (Com­mon­wealth and Ex­ter­nal Ter­ri­to­ries) Act Chap­ter 12:04.

“The judg­ment demon­strates that clear­ly there was wrong­do­ing by the po­lice. The ex­trac­tion of Thomas did not fol­low the nor­mal pro­ce­dures. There is a le­gal pro­ce­dure to be ap­plied for every sov­er­eign na­tion. The ex­pla­na­tions by the Prime Min­is­ter and the Min­istry fall short of pro­vid­ing any prop­er ex­pla­na­tion or de­fence for this se­ri­ous act. The Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice has not ex­plained what le­gal pro­ce­dures were used. This vi­o­lates the rule of law,” Lal­la said.

“There is no in­di­ca­tion of any com­mu­ni­ca­tion or for­mal re­quest to the au­thor­i­ties in Bar­ba­dos which will re­quire a court or­der to ex­tra­dite Thomas back to Trinidad. There is no le­gal pro­ce­dure that has been iden­ti­fied and it is im­por­tant for the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice to come out and say what le­gal pro­ce­dure was fol­lowed,” the at­tor­ney con­tend­ed.

He said Cari­com has to ex­am­ine this mat­ter and de­vel­op poli­cies to pre­vent it from hap­pen­ing again.

“This is now a se­ri­ous re­gion­al is­sue and I am anx­ious to hear what the Ba­jan Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and the Ba­jan At­tor­ney Gen­er­al has to say on the mat­ter. Cari­com has to as­sess whether this is a prac­tice that will be con­doned. Cari­com should set a frame­work of guide­lines rather than al­low this il­le­gal act to be en­dorsed and en­cour­aged,” he ex­plained.

Lal­la al­so said the way Thomas was ex­tra­dit­ed was un­prece­dent­ed.

“This is a case that af­fects every cit­i­zen,” he said, adding he was hap­py to see the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty tak­ing up the mat­ter as “there is ram­pant po­lice abuse tak­ing place in T&T.”

For­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter and po­lice com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith al­so cor­rob­o­rat­ed the in­for­ma­tion giv­en by se­cu­ri­ty ex­perts say­ing it was un­be­liev­able that an RSS air­craft could land in T&T, with­out the knowl­edge of the Prime Min­is­ter.

Grif­fith said Thomas was one of sev­er­al firearm deal­ers who have been tar­get­ed by the gov­ern­ment. He said the ex­tra­di­tion was part of a wider plot to pros­e­cute Grif­fith for stand­ing up to the Gov­ern­ment as it pur­sued a witch­hunt against po­lit­i­cal op­po­nents. 

Guardian Me­dia sent mes­sages to Erring­ton Shur­land, ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of the RSS ask­ing about the pro­ce­dures but there was no re­sponse. Thomas al­so did not re­spond to ques­tions. 

On Thurs­day, a day be­fore he left T&T to play golf in Bar­ba­dos, Dr Row­ley held a press con­fer­ence deny­ing any knowl­edge of Thomas’s ex­tra­di­tion.