Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and Rur­al De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Faris Al-Rawi says the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher should not be rushed.

Speak­ing with re­porters at the Sun Wai As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go Spring Fes­ti­val cel­e­bra­tion at San Fer­nan­do City Au­di­to­ri­um yes­ter­day, Al-Rawi echoed Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s state­ment that the Gov­ern­ment has no role or func­tion in the in­ves­ti­ga­tion sur­round­ing the com­mis­sion­er.

As an at­tor­ney, he said, he un­der­stood the im­por­tance of let­ting the law take its course. 

Al-Rawi said, “This is not a rush job. I have been the sub­ject of (an) in­ves­ti­ga­tion. Many peo­ple have been the sub­ject of in­ves­ti­ga­tions. You don’t hold sig­nif­i­cant pow­er and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and not at times sub­ject your­self to an in­ves­ti­ga­tion. I’ve giv­en many a state­ment to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice as an in­di­vid­ual. It nev­er con­cerned me be­cause I know that the process­es will hap­pen. This is where you have to have process­es hap­pen and an­swers will come from the process­es. There is no rush to this.”

While it is un­usu­al to have an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to a sit­ting com­mis­sion­er of po­lice, the min­is­ter said, it demon­strat­ed that the rule of law and the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process­es are ful­ly at work.

The for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al ad­mit­ted the ar­rest of Com­mis­sion­er Hare­wood-Christo­pher (who was re­leased on Sat­ur­day) is a mat­ter of con­cern and alacrity is re­quired.

The min­is­ter said, “This is a sit­u­a­tion re­al­ly where all eyes need to be on the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions. That is the con­sti­tu­tion­al van­guard of the role and prin­ci­ple of a Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions, ad­vis­ing on what ought to be done.”    

Hare­wood-Christo­pher was re­leased on Sat­ur­day af­ter two days in po­lice cus­tody in con­nec­tion with the pur­chase and im­por­ta­tion of two high-pow­ered sniper ri­fles.   The TTPS has con­firmed that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion against her and re­tired for­mer Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency Di­rec­tor, Roger Best is on­go­ing.