Judge ‘wins’ Trinity Cross in court

The dramatic presentation was made in the San Fernando High Court by Senior Counsel Russell Martineau, who is resisting the Maha Sabha and Islamic Relief Centre’s lawsuit that the Trinity Cross offends other religions in multi-religious Trinidad and Tobago.

Martineau caught everyone in the courtroom by surprise when he whipped out the cross and handed it to Jamadar. The senior counsel did not tell the judge where he got the nation’s highest award.

Martineau, who is resisting the lawsuit on the State’s behalf, told Jamadar that the Trinity Cross inscription bears the Trinity Hills, a ship’s wheel and the national birds.

And the cross on the Trinity Cross, Martineau submitted, was a poor imitation of a Christian cross. "It does not look like a cross. The State is not disproving or endorsing religion by or through the cross," Martineau submitted.

Martineau made heavy weather about the appearance of the Trinity Cross when he submitted that the cross did not even resemble the Christian crucifix.

Such type of cross, according to the Wilkipedia encyclopaedia, is a cross having arms narrow at the inner centre and very broad at the other end.

Martineau told Jamadar that the cross on the Trinity Cross resembles the "plus" sign on a computer. "It is a poor imitation of the cross. And if it was used for religious purposes," the attorney added, "it would be of the highest standard."

Photocopies of the Trinity Cross were passed to Jamadar, but the judge requested he be given a coloured digital photo of the Trinity Cross.