Danny Montano: People who commit heinous crimes will find no sanctuary in TT

He was piloting the International Criminal Court (ICC) Bill in the Senate.

Montano said the Bill, which gives effect to Trinidad and Tobago’s obligations under the Rome Statute of the ICC, would enable Trinidad and Tobago courts to try offences committed under the statute within the framework of the Trinidad and Tobago legal system. He said the Bill would also make the legal provisions for the ICC to prosecute cases in Trinidad and Tobago where the local authorities are unwilling or unable to do so. "The ICC, therefore, is designed to complement existing national judicial systems," he said.

The minister said the jurisdiction of the court was universal. Persons in Trinidad and Tobago or elsewhere who commit the international crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, could be tried in Trinidad and Tobago.

Montano said that before proceedings for crimes can be commenced, the Attorney General’s consent must be obtained.

He said the rationale for this approach lay in the international character of these offences. Montano explained that because the decision to prosecute or not to prosecute may have serious repercussions within Trinidad and Tobago as well as within the wider international community, it should not be a decision left solely to officials.

"The responsibility (for deciding to prosecute or not) is best left to the Attorney General who, as a member of the Cabinet, shares executive responsibility for concluding and ratifying treaties, and who is constitutionally responsible for legal affairs and legal proceedings involving the State," Montano said.

He said the Bill also sets out provisions to try offenders who commit offences against the administration of justice, such as the bribery of an ICC judge, the giving of false evidence, conspiring to obstruct, prevent, pervert or defeat the course of justice, interfering with witnesses or officials of the ICC and fabricating evidence.

Montano recalled that it was former President Arthur NR Robinson who put the issue of the ICC on the table at the UN General Assembly on Disarmament in 1988.