HCU boss in court for illegal protest

ATTORNEY representing the president of the Hindu Credit Union (HCU) and three of the organisation’s security officers in their court matter arising out of an illegal protest held one week ago, yesterday asked the prosecution personnel to furnish them with information relating to protests held over the last five years. Attorney Prakash Ramadhar said the information would be fundamental to the defence in how it approaches the case set out against his clients. Ramadhar made the request as the HCU president, Harry Har-narine, and three of the HCU’s security officers, Ronald Malchan, Elvis Sookoo and Nobert Ramdeen, appeared for the second time before Arima Magistrate Deborah Quintyne in the Arima First Court.

The four men were charged on July 11 for allegedly taking part in an illegal march held in the Piarco area, which was headed by Harnarine. Harnarine is charged with leading an illegal march without authority and resisting arrest while the three guards are charged with resisting arrest and obstructing police officers in the course of their duty. In his submission, Ramadhar outlined his requests and told the magistrate he needed to know how many protests have been held in Trinidad and Tobago over the past five years, and of those protests, he needed to find out how many arrests and prosecutions have resulted from the actions taken by police officers.

Ramadhar also requested that the names of the persons who have been prosecuted, and the jurisdictions to which they belonged be made available to him. The dates of the prosecutions, according to the attorney, would also be helpful to the defence. Following the attorney’s submissions, the magistrate asked for the basis for Ramadhar’s application. “How does the background information relate to this particular issue?” the magistrate asked. The attorney explained, “We have a situation where my client is being prosecuted for something we feel many others have done, but no such action was taken.” Ramadhar also noted that the defence was entitled to information that may be of assistance to pursuing this matter. After the attorney’s submission, the magistrate instructed the court prosecutors to try to get the information requested. The matter was then adjourned to December 3, 2004.  Speaking to Newsday after the court appearance, Ramadhar said his request for the information was to make a point that the quality of the law should be that all should benefit from the discretion that there is no harm in the public interest.”