‘Boombay’ awarded $70K for unlawful detention

Justice Vasheist Kokaram yesterday awarded Boney a total of $70,000 in damages for his unlawful detention for the period November 30, 2011, to December 5, 2011. Boney was arrested on November 29, 2011, during the 2011 State of Emergency on allegations that he was involved in a plot to assassinate then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and three members of Cabinet and had teamed up with other gang leaders such as Barry Barrington and Selwyn “Robocop” Alexis.

He was detained for seven days and eventually released at the end of the SoE without any charge being laid against him.

In his ruling yesterday, Kokaram warned against arbitrary detention of persons even during a declared state of emergency.

“This case of Mr Boney, as presented, demonstrates through an action of false imprisonment the balance between individual and collective rights in times where there is a threat to our public safety under a declared state of emergency.

“Freedom from arbitrary detention is a proud legacy of our shared values and equally threats to public safety lie not only in attacks against citizens’ security and well-being by criminal acts but, also acts of the State which irrationally deprives its citizens of their cherished private rights and individual freedoms,” Kokaram said.

In his written reasons, delivered in the High Court in Portof- Spain yesterday, Kokaram held that while Corporal Charles Budri, the police who arrested Boney, did have an honest belief in the suspicion that Boney was involved in criminal activity, there was no proper explanation for his detention beyond the first 24 hours.

“In the aftermath of many acts of terror, which have threatened public safety, democratic societies legitimately react to protect its citizens and their values of human security and their right to peace,” the judge said.

But he emphasised that “mere suspicion” to justify an arrest was “no licence to continue to detain” an individual without justification.

Kokaram said while there was an honestly held suspicion of Boney’s involvement in gun related violence, which may have destabilised the country, he was not satisfied that the five-day detention was necessary for the police to continue their enquiries into his involvement in the alleged plot.

Kokaram also dismissed the evidence of retired Deputy Police Commissioner Mervyn Richardson of the need to conduct interviews and make further enquiries into Boney’s alleged involvement in the plot as “unhelpful and very thin”.

“There is no question in this case of the legitimacy of the purpose of the Emergency Powers Regulations legislation under which the power of arrest is being exercised.

“...similarly, in this case, it cannot be overlooked that this is a nation that has endured the reverberating pangs of criminal activity from the 1970 insurrection to the 1990 attempted coup to an increasing crime rate for a small nation which resulted in the Government’s decision to declare the State of Emergency,” Kokaram said.

Boney was represented by attorneys Lee Merry and Kelston Pope while State attorneys Coreen Findlay and Rachael Thurab represented the Attorney General.