RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Promi­nent hu­man rights at­tor­ney Sub­has Pan­day has con­demned the on­go­ing de­ten­tion of peo­ple for months with­out charges at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre in Arou­ca, de­scrib­ing it as a “fla­grant breach of con­sti­tu­tion­al and hu­man rights”.

He was re­spond­ing to an ex­clu­sive Guardian Me­dia re­port that de­tainees held un­der the State of Emer­gency had be­gun a hunger strike on Oc­to­ber 28 af­ter be­ing held for months with­out any up­date on their in­ves­ti­ga­tions or if charges would be laid.

Speak­ing from his San Fer­nan­do of­fice, Pan­day, a for­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter, called on the Gov­ern­ment to re­lease those held with­out charge for more than two months.

“If you de­tain peo­ple for months with­out charge or in­ves­ti­ga­tion, that is un­just and un­con­sti­tu­tion­al,” Pan­day said.

He con­demned re­ports that, as the SoE was near­ing its end, po­lice rushed to take state­ments with­out lawyers present, giv­ing de­tainees false hope of re­lease. They al­leged­ly con­tin­ued de­tain­ing them af­ter the SoE was ex­tend­ed.

Say­ing de­tainees are be­ing de­nied due process, Pan­day said, “That is un­fair and un­law­ful, and it must be in­ves­ti­gat­ed.”

Pan­day al­so crit­i­cised the SoE Re­view Tri­bunal, ap­point­ed by the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, claim­ing it lacked in­de­pen­dence. “The At­tor­ney Gen­er­al is a po­lit­i­cal fig­ure. How can he ap­point the same tri­bunal that de­cides whether cit­i­zens re­gain their free­dom? There is no sep­a­ra­tion of pow­ers. The law must be changed to al­low an in­de­pen­dent body to han­dle this process,” he said.

He urged press and ad­vo­ca­cy groups to write to Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der to im­me­di­ate­ly in­ves­ti­gate the com­plaints of the de­tainees.

Mean­while, crim­i­nal de­fence at­tor­ney Ger­ard Ram­saran echoed these con­cerns, not­ing that while the Gov­ern­ment can re­strict rights un­der an SoE, due process must still ap­ply. “Hold­ing peo­ple in lim­bo for months on end does not equate to jus­tice. A State of Emer­gency can­not be used in­def­i­nite­ly as a sub­sti­tute for ev­i­dence or prop­er in­ves­ti­ga­tion,” Ram­saran said. He added that de­tainees could pur­sue ju­di­cial re­view or civ­il ac­tion once the SoE ends if held with­out prop­er cause.

Be­yond le­gal con­cerns, de­tainees re­port­ed over­crowd­ed, un­san­i­tary, and de­grad­ing con­di­tions.

In a let­ter to Guardian Me­dia, they de­scribed a build­ing that is poor­ly ven­ti­lat­ed, with non-func­tion­al toi­lets, in­fes­ta­tions of cock­roach­es, flies, and pi­geons, and a strong stench. They say they are kept un­der bright lights 24 hours a day, with on­ly one hour of out­door time on week­days and none on week­ends or hol­i­days. They claimed med­ical care is min­i­mal, with on­ly Panadol or gas tablets pro­vid­ed, leav­ing many ill and plac­ing emo­tion­al and fi­nan­cial strain on fam­i­lies.

Hu­man rights ad­vo­cate Denise Pitch­er said the re­port­ed con­di­tions are “cru­el and in­hu­mane and vi­o­late their con­sti­tu­tion­al rights”. She added, “The most im­me­di­ate step should be that all de­tainees should be brought be­fore the rel­e­vant tri­bunals in ac­cor­dance with due process guar­an­tees in our Con­sti­tu­tion.”

Since Mon­day, Guardian Me­dia has been try­ing to reach Min­is­ter Alexan­der, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Je­re­mie, Act­ing Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er Hay­den Forde, and Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro via phone and What­sApp, leav­ing mes­sages, but none have re­spond­ed to the ques­tions raised.