Attorneys to address judge on SoE detention today

Presiding over the trial of Bryan “Soldier Barry” Barrington is Justice Eleanor Donaldson- Honeywell in the Port of Spain High Court.

Barrington, a former member of the Defence Force, is seeking compensation for what he claims were a wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and breach of his constitutional rights.

He was among 13 people arrested separately during the 2011 State of Emergency in connection with the assassination plot.

All were eventually released without being charged.

Attorney Abdel Ashraph represents Barrington while Coreen Findley and Rachel Thurab appear for the Attorney General.

On November 21, 2011, while at his Partap Trace, South Oropouche home, Barrington was arrested by “approximately 15 masked police officers,” according to his statement of case filed in the High Court on October 23, last year.

Barrington said he was “not informed of the reason for his arrest.” He was taken to the Marabella Police Station for 30 minutes and then to the Woodbrook Police Station where he was detained for six days.

He was then transferred to the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca where he was “interrogated by several police officers.” He was moved to the Immigration Detention Centre in Aripo the day after.

On December 6, 2011, Barrington was eventually released “without having been told the reason” for his detention.

It is the State’s contention that Barrington’s arrest and detention were legal under the provisions of the Emergency Powers Regulations (EPR) 2011 which were in force at the time of his detention.

At the preliminary stages of the lawsuit, the attorney general did not file a defence to the claim and instead applied to have Barrington’s lawsuit struck out stating it was an “abuse of process.” This was dismissed by Donaldson-Honeywell.

Earlier this month, Justice Vasheist Kokaram awarded suspected gang leader Anton “Boombay” Boney $70,000 in compensation for his unlawful detention for the period November 30, 2011 to December 5, 2011.

Boney was one of the 13 arrested. Kokaram held that while the initial detention of Boney was reasonable, his continued detention was illegal.

He also warned against arbitrary detention of people even during a declared State of Emergency