JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Jayanti tells AG: Attack Scotland, not me

by

Gail Alexander
1646 days ago
20210215
UNC Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial  speakS during a news conference  at the Opposition Office on Charles Street, Port-of-Spain.

UNC Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial speakS during a news conference at the Opposition Office on Charles Street, Port-of-Spain.

ANISTO ALVES

UNC Sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al says At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi can­not ar­gue with her about a con­flict of in­ter­est in a re­cent bail case since Gov­ern­ment MP Kei­th Scot­land has al­so ar­gued against Par­lia­ment’s re­stric­tion on bail in a cer­tain mat­ter.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Lutch­me­di­al said, “Al-Rawi’s claim there’s a con­flict of in­ter­est in my chal­leng­ing the non-bail­able na­ture of mur­der is ridicu­lous and amus­ing. It shows he has no ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the com­plex le­gal is­sues in­volved in this mat­ter .... the reck­less as­ser­tion that I am try­ing to se­cure bail for mur­der­ers is not just un­true, it’s an ir­re­spon­si­ble and dan­ger­ous mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

“The al­le­ga­tion of a con­flict of in­ter­est is even more as­ton­ish­ing giv­en that a Gov­ern­ment MP re­cent­ly ar­gued that the de­nial of bail by Par­lia­ment was il­le­gal and un­con­sti­tu­tion­al. I haven’t heard the AG at­tack him, so why me?”

Lutch­me­di­al ex­plained: “ In the case of Danielle St Omer -v- the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, er­ro­neous­ly cit­ed by the AG as one of my cas­es, it was, in fact, the Ho­n­ourable Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Port-of-Spain South Mr Kei­th Scot­land rep­re­sent­ed Ms St Omer and ar­gued at the High Court and Court of Ap­peal that Par­lia­ment’s re­stric­tion on bail was un­con­sti­tu­tion­al as it was not rea­son­ably jus­ti­fi­able and al­so vi­o­lat­ed the sep­a­ra­tion of pow­ers.”

Lutch­me­di­al added, “How is it that the AG doesn’t find his col­league in the Low­er House to be con­flict­ed but takes is­sue with me? This is hypocrisy of the high­est or­der and the AG, in seek­ing to score cheap po­lit­i­cal points against me, is not on­ly in con­tempt of the Court but has tread dan­ger­ous­ly close to de­fam­ing my char­ac­ter.”

The UNC Sen­a­tor said she takes no is­sue with Scot­land, who she said has rep­re­sent­ed clients fear­less­ly in ac­cor­dance with the oath tak­en by all at­tor­neys.

She al­so not­ed Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s re­cent com­ments - that bail for mur­der is not what’s want­ed in this coun­try and he trust­ed that those who made de­ci­sions “would make it on the ba­sis that the peo­ple don’t want that.”

Lutch­me­di­al said, “The shame­less at­tempt to pres­sure the ju­di­cial of­fi­cer who has to rule on this mat­ter by no less than the Prime Min­is­ter is alarm­ing and should fright­en any right-think­ing cit­i­zen who be­lieves in democ­ra­cy and the rule of law. Per­haps MP Scot­land needs to give the AG and the PM an ur­gent law lec­ture on the sep­a­ra­tion of pow­ers and the sub ju­dice rule.”

Lutch­me­di­al is an at­tor­ney in a case brought by Ak­ili Charles who claimed the law made by Par­lia­ment which de­nies bail for mur­der is un­con­sti­tu­tion­al and ju­di­cial of­fi­cers of the court should in­stead have the dis­cre­tion to con­sid­er bail.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored