ONE of the main suspects in last week’s $50,000 robbery at the Couva branch of First Citizens Bank (FCB), went to Macqueripe Beach yesterday for a swim. While there, he was spotted by the police.

In trying to make his escape he dived into the sea and swam away. But his escape to the deep was short-lived as he was picked up by a Coast Guard patrol three miles out in the Gulf of Paria and handed over to the police. Bathers at the popular beach looked on in amazement yesterday, as  coast guard officers plucked the man, who was wearing a pair of brown bathing trunks, from the sea around 3.30 pm yesterday. The 22-year-old man, who has a twin brother, is the main suspect in the $50,000 robbery which occurred last Tuesday. A 19-year-old man has already been charged with the robbery and a warrant has been issued for the arrest of a third suspect. Reports revealed that around 2.30 pm, an off-duty police officer attached to Central Division was at the beach when he saw the suspect swimming close by. The officer used his cellphone and contacted officers of the Carenage and Four Roads Police Stations.

When officers went to the scene, the suspect who had a grin on his face, swam about three miles out to sea and then sat upon a rock hoping that the officers would leave. Officers alerted the Coast Guard and asked for assistance in arresting the suspect. For more than one hour, the officers kept the man under surveillance as they awaited the arrival of the Coast Guard. The suspect continued to sit on the rock and gesticulated at officers urging them to come and get him, but they maintained their position and watched his every move. Scores of bathers looked on at the activities while some experienced swimmers volunteered to apprehend the suspect for the police. They were advised against doing so because officers were unsure if the man was armed. Coast Guard officers arrived on the scene at around 4.30 pm and pulled the surprised suspect from the rock where he was sitting. He offered no resistance while being placed in the coast guard vessel and was then taken to shore, where he was handed over to PC Sifontis of the Carenage Police Station. The effort resulted in applause from members of the public who witnessed the rather unprecedented arrest.

The suspect, who is from Marabella, will be placed on an identification parade today at the Chaguanas Police Station. Police officers said yesterday that the man is wanted for several other robberies. On Tuesday last, around 1 pm, three men in orange coloured jumpers walked into the FCB branch at Couva, jumped over the counter and held up three cashiers. They robbed them of cash amounting to $50,000. Supt Farrel who was sitting in his car outside the bank drew his firearm to stop the bandits but instead shot himself in the right hand. He was treated at the Couva Hospital and discharged. A surveillance camera at the bank recorded the entire robbery and the faces of the bandits were seen clearly by a police sketch artist who drew sketches of the three suspects. Police officers were able to identify the suspects who they described as career bandits. Hours after the robbery, officers of  Central Division went to Marabella where they detained the first suspect. He was charged by Sgt Corbette and appeared at the Couva court on Friday. The suspect was denied bail. Senior officers were high in praise of the coordinated efforts of the police and Coast Guard which led to the suspect being held.

THE ARMY has been called in to protect a new National Housing Authority (NHA) refurbishment programme and Government has reached agreement with the People’s Republic of China to establish a military hospital in Trinidad and Tobago.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning made these announcements yesterday at a news conference at Balisier House after a PNM General Council meeting. The Prime Minister said Government will soon begin a new NHA apartment refurbishment programme throughout the country to complete some 15 percent of work left undone by its predecessor programme. However admitting that all was not well in the programme, Manning disclosed: “On this occasion, we are going to ensure that the monies applied to the programme reach the right destination and are not diverted to destinations that were never intended by the framers of the programme in the first place. For this purpose, the armed forces of TT will be pressed into service to assist in guaranteeing that the objectives of the programme are properly achieved.” He added that the parameters of the army’s mission in the NHA programme are now being worked out. The last NHA apartment refurbishment programme was marred by allegations of criminal involvement. In addition, an NHA housing project in Beverly Hills was attacked on two occasions by a Muslim group which claimed that it should have been awarded the contract.

Manning further revealed that following last week’s visit to TT by Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Li Zhaoxing, the two nations have agreed to establish a military hospital in TT. However, asked if Government was seeking military assistance from China, following the suspension of US military aid in July due to TT’s support for the International Criminal Court, Manning replied: “Military assistance is a political matter and I’m not sure that any view other than a political one is relevant in this regard.” The Prime Minister said he did not feel slighted by his exclusion (along with five other Caricom leaders) from a breakfast meeting with US President George W Bush on Wednesday in New York. Manning indicated that TT is currently pursuing its own initiative with the US and that initiative “is alive and very well indeed and we hope to see it come to fruition not too very long from now.” “There are considerations involving TT that make us different from everyone else in the region. It is the question of energy security to the US. In fact, in the hemisphere no other country including Venezuela,” is in the position that TT finds itself he declared. The Prime Minister reminded reporters that in 2002, 68 percent of all Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports into the US came from TT.

A FATHER of two who spent a year building a house for his wife and two children will never get the opportunity to move into his new home with his family.

Thirty-seven-year-old Rajkumar Seemungal died after a steel pole he was holding came too close to high tension wires, causing 12,000 kilovolts (kv) of electricity to surge through his body. Seemungal, a maintenance worker, employed with Supermix Feed Ltd, at Arima, was flung several feet away, in front of his new home, at Cunapo Southern Main Road, Cushe Village, Biche. Seemungal died on arrival at the Mayaro District Hospital. A close family friend, who did not want to be named, told Newsday that around 6.45 pm, on Saturday, Seemungal and his friend were to dig a hole to place a steel pole to supply electricity to his new home. Apparently, he said, Seemugal had dug the hole too close to 12,000 kv high tension wires. “He was holding the pole only three feet away from the high tension wires  and it (the pole) drew the current from the wires. His hands were burnt and the current pitch him away,” he added.

He said the ambulance never came and they were forced to find a car to rush an unconscious Seemungal some eight miles to the Rio Claro Health Centre. But upon arrival there, they were told that there were no doctors or nurses. They then took him to the Mayaro Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Seemungal, who was married and had two children, ages 12 and 10, had been building the house for the past year. Seemungal’s friend said he had finished building the house and was in the process of putting the final touches to his home. “He just had to put in the windows but he wanted to get electricity first,” he said. Seemungal, he said, had been told by T&TEC to plant the pole and they would connect the electricity to the house. He said according to electrical regulations in a situation like that, the pole was supposed to be planted some seven feet away from the wires. Anything under this could result in electrocution.

Seemungal, his wife, Matie, and their children had been living downstairs his parents’ home. His brothers and sisters occupy the upstairs of the house since his father passed away sometime ago and his mother lives abroad. When contacted by Newsday yesterday his wife declined to be interviewed because, according to her, Seemungal always insisted he did not want “anything in the papers” if he died. Seemungal, who worked at Super Mix Feeds for five years, was the sole breadwinner in his family. His son, Joel, attends Rio Claro College, while his daughter, Stephanie, is a pupil of Navet Presbyterian School. Company officials intend to assist the family financially with the funeral arrangements, which is expected to be finalised following a post mortem at the Forensic Sciences Centre, today. Biche Police are continuing investigations.

A 25-year old Beetham man was charged yesterday with kidnapping and robbing a St James taxi-driver.

The charge was laid by PC Sifontis of the Carenage Police Station. The suspect was held on Friday at Mayaro driving the car belonging to the taxi-driver. Reports revealed that around 6 pm on Thursday, taxi-driver Boniface Marin, 35, was plying his taxi for hire when he was hired by a man who asked to be taken to Macqueripe. On the way to Macqueripe, the suspect allegedly held up Marin, ordered him out of the vehicle, tied him up and placed him in the trunk. Marin managed to untie himself and threw himself out of the car. He made a report to the Carenage Police and an All Points Bulletin was sent out to all police divisions to be on the lookout for the vehicle. The car was seen in Mayaro on Friday and the suspect held. The suspect will appear before a Port-of-Spain Magistrate today.

THE inquest into the death of schoolboy Akiel Chambers will start this morning before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court.

The witnesses in the inquest were formally served earlier this month and they will appear in court, most of them for the very first time since the inquest was ordered more than three years ago. The last time the inquest was called was before Magistrate Marcia Thompson-Murray, sitting as Coroner at NIPDEC House. However, Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicholls has decided to take over this matter which has received a lot of publicity in the last three months. When the inquest was called on August 11, just two witnesses were present – Valerie Pascall, aunt of the dead boy, and PC Clive Alvarez, the investigating officer.

The court will inquire into the circumstances surrounding the death of Chambers, whose body was found in the swimming pool of businessman Charles James at Haleland Park, Maraval, on May 24, 1998. Akiel Chambers had gone to the Maraval residence to attend a birthday party for James’ daughter Carrie, when he disappeared. Akiel was discovered missing from the birthday party, and according to one witness, he was last seen leaving the premises. A search was mounted for the 11-year-old boy, but he was not found. Even the swimming pool was searched. Shortly before midnight, Akiel’s body was found in a crouched position in the swimming pool. An autopsy performed by forensic pathologist Dr Hughvon Des Vignes revealed that Akiel died from drowning. But the pathologist found spermatozoa in the rectum of the boy, leading investigators to believe that he was sexually molested prior to his death.

On April 19, 2000, Coroner Jai Narine ruled that Akiel’s death was as a result of an accidental drowning. No inquest was held and the Coroner’s decision came after reviewing the file. The following month, the then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mark Mohammed ordered a second inquest.

THE Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will be inaugurated in Port-of-Spain on November 15, but the Law Association is conducting a poll seeking responses from more than 1,000 lawyers as to whether the CCJ should replace the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council at this time.

Karl Hudson-Phillip QC, President of the Law Association, told Newsday yesterday that the association wants to know how lawyers feel about the proposed CCJ which will soon become a reality with headquarters in Port-of-Spain. Two questions have been asked in the questionnaire. 1. Do you agree that the Caribbean Court of Justice should have compulsory and exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine disputes concerning the interpretation and application of the Treaty establishing the Caribbean Community? 2. Should the Caribbean Court of Justice replace the Privy Council as the final Court of Appeal in all civil and all criminal matters? Hudson-Phillip said that in 1997, a poll was conducted among the more than 1,000 members of the profession. The consensus, according to the association’s president, showed that the lawyers were against abolishing appeals to the Privy Council. This poll was conducted at a time when the then UNC Government was involved with other Caribbean countries in having the CCJ as the region’s final Court of Appeal. Why then another poll?

Hudson-Phillip admitted that a lot has happened since the last poll. “We want to know what the profession is thinking of right now. We held an extraordinary general meeting just before the end of the last law term. The meeting decided that this was an important issue and that a poll should take place.” Hudson-Phillip said of the more than 1,000 members of the association, about 50 percent have e-mail addresses. So, it was decided at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Council that there must be an advertisement placed in the daily newspapers. This was done yesterday. The association has given lawyers until September 30 to submit their responses to the secretary, Hendrickson Seunath SC. Hudson-Phillip said if the results of the poll are different to that of 1997, an announcement will be made. Attorney General Glenda Morean-Phillip saw the advertisement in the newspaper. She said that lawyers will be the ones to benefit the most from the CCJ. The Attorney General told Newsday yesterday that lawyers will certainly have more access to the CCJ than they had with the Privy Council. “Certainly, there will be more activity here (Trinidad) than over there with the Privy Council. They will have to take into consideration two things – the distance to go to London and the costs in getting there. The litigants will also have an advantage of having easier access to the highest court. These are things which lawyers will have to consider when answering that poll,” Morean-Phillip added.

Former UNC Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, who pursued the establishment of the CCJ, said the PNM Government was committing a serious breach of undertaking by pursuing with the inauguration of the CCJ without proper consultation. He said his Government decided to establish the CCJ on the basis that there will be extensive public consultations and if necessary, a referendum. “I took the position that the legal profession and the public should have a say before this court becomes a reality.” Maharaj said the Government needs a special majority in Parliament if it is to enact legislation to have the CCJ as this final appellate court. “As things look right now, that is not going to happen. The Government have been hosting functions without Parliamentary approval. That is putting the cart before the horse.” Maharaj said the attitude of the Government can open the country to serious legal action. Although he was one of the driving forces for the establishment of the CCJ, Maharaj believes the time is not right for such a court.

TWO months ago, 41-year-old Lincoln Tees-dale, a father of two was stabbed to death.

To this day his brother Roy Lee said that no one has been charged with the murder even though the police know  who the suspect is. Furthermore, Lee says that his brother’s killer continues to be a free man living in the vicinity. Lee, 51, spoke  to Newsday  expressing the deep hurt and disappointment about the incident which has affected him and his family. He said the man had accused his brother of touching his girlfriend two days before the stabbing. However Lee said his brother refuted this claim and even attempted to go to the house of the woman to explain and clarify the situation with her parents. This did not pre-empt the tragedy.

On July 23 Lee said his brother and other friends were seated on a bench at Mandingo Road, Princes Town.  The suspect, he added, approached Tees-dale from behind and pushed a butcher’s knife to the left side of his abdomen. He  succumbed to his injuries on July 28 after being warded at the San Fernando General Hospital. His lungs collapsed and the diaphragm was ruptured. The autopsy indicated cause of death as pulmonary embolism (blood  clot in the lungs.) Lee said, “After the stabbing the police came and asked questions, they took evidence, but nothing has been done.” He even blames the situation for the death of his mother yesterday, saying it caused her undue stress and adversely affected her already declining health. Lee wants the Minister of National Security  to intervene and deliver justice.

Lee, with a grimace on his face said, “ The man  never got arrested unlike reports stating that he did, he is  around the place like normal” He added, “ In fact he is  boasting, that is the part that really hurting my family.  My brother was a real hard working fella, people upset to know that his killer walking free. “ Lee said he  intends to pursue the matter and ended by saying, “If I don’t get justice for my brother, I  would be really  disappointed.”