AG seeks UNC help on Kidnap Bill

Attorney General Glenda Morean appealed to the Opposi-tion UNC to put aside its political differences and to support the Government’s Kidnapping Bill 2003 currently before Parliament.

Morean’s call came at a dinner/seminar on the Bill on Thursday at Home Construction Limited Organisational Centre, Tacarigua, hosted jointly by three business associations. The event was introduced by the three female business heads — Gail Merhair of the San Juan Business Association, Kiran Maharaj of the Greater Tunapuna Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Indra Sinanan Ojar-Maharaj of the Sangre Grande Chamber of Commerce. Morean invited co-panelist Pointe-a-Pierre MP Gillian Lucky to support the Bill, saying that despite Lucky’s earlier stated misgivings about the Bill, it was still before the Senate where it could be amended before being returned to the House of Representatives. Saying the Bill specifically addressing the current problem of kidnapping for ransom, Morean appealed: “We need dialogue without the political rhetoric. When you have a serious problem confronting you, you have to get together to find the solution...There is still time for all involved.”

Earlier Lucky said she was concerned the Bill placed on a prosecutor the double burden of proving both the initial abduction offence of kidnapping and then the ongoing and continuing offence of false imprisonment, that a mandatory 25-year minimum penalty would prevent perpetrators from pleading guilty, and that the Bill did not take account of lesser abduction offences such as a father taking his own child or a young man eloping with a young woman. In reply Morean said: “If this Bill has flaws, what is Parliament for? To debate the provisions and make suggestions. The correct thing for the Opposition to do is propose amendments.” Morean explained that this Bill only intended to deal with kidnapping for ransom, the range of other abduction offences being covered by the existing common-law on each of kidnapping and of false imprisonment. Morean said: “This Kidnap-ping Bill doesn’t replace the common law offences.”