With more than 100 murders committed across the twin island republic so far this year, former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj has called on the government to call on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI0 and Britain’s Scotland Yard, in an effort to help in the fight against crime.
“This in my view will send a signal to criminals that they will be caught if they commit murders and serious crimes,” Maharaj told journalists at a recent news conference.
“It is a time that calls for immediate action, but the present problem which strikes at the root of the criminal justice system and the rule of law is that murder and serious crimes are not being detected. The government must therefore focus on what is urgent – which if not redressed, will subvert the rule of law,” he said.
The former attorney general, who served in the Basdeo Panday administration – when the last execution of convicted murdered was carried out in 1999, said the government must come to grips with the situation as quickly as possible – and if not, the rule of law could be threatened.
Meanwhile, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon said the government believes a more “direct and strategic approach” is required to deal with the situation particularly in Central Trinidad where rival gangs have been engaged in reprisal killings. He told the Senate on Tuesday that the principle of warfare calls for confrontation of force at the right time and place.
Since the last weekend, at least four people were shot and killed in the centre of the island. Earlier this year, members of a group calling itself “the Unruly ISIS” appeared in a video on social media warning of reprisal killings and claiming to have sophisticated weapons in their possession.
But Opposition Senator Wade Mark, says the government was incapable of dealing with the crime situation and said the National Security Minister “is incompetent and has to go”.
