House passes Anti-Terror Bill

The House of Representatives passed the Anti-Terrorism Bill 2004 late Friday night, but the Opposition voted against it and vowed to ask the law courts to strike it down as unconstitutional. The Bill seeks to criminalise terrorist activities and to facilitate their detection, prevention, prosecution, conviction, and punishment, and for the seizure of terrorist assets.

It was introduced into the House a week ago when UNC MP for Pointe-a-Pierre, Gillian Lucky, got the Government to defer it until Friday.
In the follow-up debate, eight Opposition MPs voiced their concerns about the Bill — Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday, Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath, Caroni East MP Ganga Singh, Barataria/San Juan MP Dr Fuad Khan,  Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma,  Chaguanas MP Manohar Ramsaran, and Naparima MP Nizam Baksh. The Government brought some amendments to the Bill but these were not sufficient to calm Opposition fears that the Bill breached the civil liberties set out in the National Constitution sections 3 and 4.

When the House was asked to support the Bill, at about 10 pm, the Opposition called for a division of the House, and each Opposition member voted against the Bill. The Bill is now due to go to the Senate for debate. Persad-Bissessar, in an immediate reaction, told Sunday Newsday that Government had not addressed Opposition concerns that the Bill breached civil liberties. She said: “The Government said it was not of the view that the Bill breached the Constitution.” She complained that no major amendments were made with respect to the Bill breaching the Constitution.

“We agree there is a need for anti-terrorist legislation but this Bill has serious violations of human rights and freedoms.” Such a Bill, she said, should be accompanied by certain checks-and-balances, such as occurred in other countries. In the UK for example, she said, an independent official monitored the application of their anti-terrorist law. Panday vowed to ask the law courts to “strike down” the Bill as unconstitutional, as it was not passed by a parliamentary special majority.