The High Court in Kingstown has ordered the Attorney General and three police officers to pay damages to political activist and prison officer Kenson King for illegally detaining and imprisoning him in May 2020.
In a decision issued on Thursday, May 4, Justice Esco L. Henry ordered the officers and Attorney General to pay King aggravated and exemplary damages, plus interest at the statutory rate, to be assessed on an application to be filed and served on or before July 6.
According to lawyer Jomo Thomas, who spoke on Boom FM on Wednesday, Justice Esco Henry should be praised for the manner she addresses constitutional issues.
“Essentially, the police had gone to Kenson King’s workplace, detained him, and claimed that he had made some offensive posts on Facebook.”
“The state never put forward any real evidence as to why they had detained this man for 32 hours,” Justice Henry stated in her decision on Monday”.
According to court records, cops admitted detaining King for inciting violence and threats in relation to a Facebook post he made and maintained that the arrest and detention were legal, and denied culpability.
Justice Henry reviewed three questions in her finding in favor of King: whether King was unlawfully arrested, whether he was unlawfully imprisoned, and what remedy, if any, he was entitled to.