AG: Kamla unprepared for Trial by Judge Alone debate

In wrapping up the debate on the bill, Al-Rawi said the Opposition Leader was not only unprepared but was wrong in saying that the Law Revision Commission could not amend sections of the law which had been ruled unconstitutional, null and invalid in the case of Jason Bissessar vs the Attorney General adjudicated by Justice Charmaine Pemberton.

Those sections had to do with Sections 67 and 68 of the Criminal Procedure Act.

However, the Attorney General said that in an appeal in January 31 the Court of Appeal had overturned that judgement. He added that the Persad Bissessar had said in her contribution that Trinidad and Tobago had been blacklisted, suggesting this had something to do with FATCA legislation.

However, he said it really had to do with the Global Forum under which the UNC Cabinet in 2011 agreed to to sign 13 bilateral agreements for the automatic exchange of information during the years in which the UNC was in office.

However, he said the then Government did not negotiate even one bilateral agreement and it was the current Government when it came into office which had to apply for fast track concession so that it could join the other countries which had already signed up.

On the issue of judge only trials, Al-Rawi said the Government had received written contributions from the Judiciary, the Criminal Justice Adviser for the United Kingdom and Canadian Governments; and also from attorneys Ravi Rajcoomar and Rajiv Persad, members of the Criminal Justice Bar Association.

He said all the advocacy against judge-only trials is misplaced and that two successive Chief Justices of this country had been crying out for an experiment with judge-only trials and that now the current Government was trying to operationalise it.