KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

While Ka­ia Sealy re­mains out of the coun­try seek­ing med­ical treat­ment, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) says it is not la­belling her a fugi­tive.

Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP) Curt Si­mon al­so said yes­ter­day that while a war­rant has been is­sued for Sealy’s ar­rest, the TTPS has no ma­jor con­cerns about her ap­pear­ing be­fore the courts to an­swer to the mat­ter.

Dur­ing a TTPS me­dia brief­ing at Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Port-of-Spain, Si­mon said, “Fugi­tive is an Eng­lish word and it could con­note many things. How­ev­er, there is a war­rant for Ka­ia Sealy and I don’t know what the per­cep­tion of fugi­tive might be, but a war­rant means that the po­lice can ar­rest you at any time, at any place when we en­counter you.”

How­ev­er, the TTPS was un­able to con­firm Sealy’s ex­act where­abouts or whether there is a dead­line for her re­turn.

Asked whether any ex­tra­di­tion re­quests had been made, Si­mon said he was un­able to com­ment.

He al­so not­ed there is no law pre­vent­ing a per­son un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion from leav­ing the coun­try.

Si­mon said, “There is no law in Trinidad and To­ba­go that al­lows the po­lice to stop some­one from leav­ing this ju­ris­dic­tion or trav­el­ling some­where sim­ply be­cause they may be in­volved in an in­ves­ti­ga­tion. Whether you are a sus­pect or not. There is no law that al­lows us to pre­vent some­one from leav­ing the coun­try. So, Ka­ia Sealy, whilst an in­ves­ti­ga­tion was go­ing on, just as any oth­er cit­i­zen had the right to move freely in and around and even out of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The ACP al­so called on the pub­lic to ex­er­cise pa­tience and trust the jus­tice sys­tem as the case con­tin­ues to at­tract pub­lic at­ten­tion and protest.

He added, “There is a war­rant for Ka­ia Sealy and I know that this is part of the rea­son for the protest. How­ev­er, jus­tice will take its course in the mat­ter and Trinidad and To­ba­go, as an evolv­ing na­tion, should, per­haps at this time, ex­er­cise pa­tience. Trust your jus­tice sys­tem and see where it goes.”

The mat­ter has sparked pub­lic de­bate and protests fol­low­ing con­cerns raised over the han­dling of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Mean­while, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) Ju­nior Ben­jamin is urg­ing the pub­lic not to pre­judge the case, stress­ing the mat­ter is now be­fore the courts. He said po­lice fol­lowed es­tab­lished pro­ce­dures dur­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, with a file pre­pared and sub­mit­ted to Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) Roger Gas­pard for ad­vice.

Ben­jamin said the ac­tions tak­en by po­lice were based on guid­ance from the DPP and not in­de­pen­dent de­ci­sions made by the ser­vice.

“It is be­fore the courts. The courts will hear this mat­ter and what we are ask­ing per­sons to do is not pre­judge this mat­ter. We are ask­ing that we al­low due process to take place and as due process takes place, every­thing will work it­self out in terms of the court of law,” Ben­jamin said.

Asked whether more charges could be laid against Sealy or any po­lice of­fi­cers, Ben­jamin said such de­ci­sions are not made by the TTPS alone.

He al­so ad­dressed con­cerns about pub­lic con­fi­dence in the po­lice, say­ing the TTPS recog­nis­es the im­por­tance of trans­paren­cy while con­tin­u­ing ef­forts to build trust.

He added, “The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice un­der­stands the im­por­tance of trans­paren­cy. We recog­nise that there are ar­eas where we will con­tin­ue to work on as we build that, but cer­tain­ly what we recog­nise is the in­tegri­ty of our of­fi­cers is some­thing that we will want to up­hold in this mat­ter and we are al­so go­ing to up­hold the fact that as we con­tin­ue to en­sure that we seek the in­ter­est of our cit­i­zens, that we con­tin­ue to let them know that they can trust the po­lice even as we seek to do our jobs with­out fear or favour, mal­ice or ill will.”