Attorney General Dale Marshall has asked Police Commissioner Richard Boyce to investigate a judge’s claim that law enforcement abducted and forcibly returned a Trinidad and Tobago national to Port of Spain earlier this year.
I’m aware of the Trinidad and Tobago High Court Justice’s judgment and have asked a report from the Commissioner of Police. Marshall told Barbados TODAY, “Until then, I cannot comment.”
After Justice Devindra Rampersad stated that Brent Thomas was “abducted” from Barbados by police to face criminal charges, Trinidad and Tobago National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds announced an appeal.
On April 25, Justice Rampersad slammed police and postponed criminal proceedings against guns dealer Thomas.
Attorney Andrew Pilgrim KC said if, as the judge stated, the cops here abducted Thomas, someone should be held accountable.
I think the cops should tell us if they were involved or not. Who ordered them? “Let them account for it because a Trinidad court says Barbadian police facilitated this kidnapping,” he told Barbados TODAY.
“I think it’s a serious, serious infringement on CARICOM (Caribbean Community) citizens’ rights in our country.
“If it happened as outlined in the judgment of the case, Barbados would have had to play a role in it, because I don’t believe a Trinidad Defence Force plane could come and land at Grantley Adams, and police in Barbados go and pick up a person, deliver him to the Trinidad police, put him on a plane and send him to Trinidad and lock him up without people here knowing what’s going on. Someone must take responsibility.”
Pilgrim suggested suing Barbados police.
“They would have no authority to arrest him unless he committed a crime here in Barbados, in which case he should have been charged in Barbados courts,” he said.
Thomas was arrested September 29, 2022, and released. He was re-arrested in Barbados, where he planned to visit his cardiologist, and returned to Trinidad and Tobago.
He was charged with having rifles and grenades.
Dr. Roodal Moonilal, a Trinidad and Tobago opposition legislator, claimed the Barbados administration had issues about a High Court judge’s Thomas abduction findings over the weekend.
Who authorized? Which T&T department? Which policeman, defense officer? Moonilal asked at a UNC event which Cabinet minister authorized and participated in the international, illegal abduction of a Trinidadian person.
Moonilal told Parliament on Friday that the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force (TTDF) helped the TTPS kidnap a citizen and bring him back to face charges.
Former national security minister Stuart Young informed Parliament that the TTDF did not convey Thomas back to Trinidad and that he arrived aboard a jet furnished by the Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS).
The Port of Spain Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is investigating the judge’s findings.
Thomas contested his detention and search warrants for his house and business in a constitutional motion.
In approving Thomas’ several declarations, Justice Rampersad directed that his ruling be conveyed to the Justice of the Peace Association and the Commissioner of Police on what information officers need on oath to obtain search warrants.
The judge found the warrants “unlawfully obtained” in his 97-page decision.
