AG: I have not been contacted by police

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi yesterday declared, “It is no secret there are persons in the Opposition that are extremely uncomfortable with the anti-corruption work that is going down now.”

He continued, “Therefore it is not surprising that you will hear conspiracy theories materialise.” Al-Raw made these declarations at a news conference at the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, in response to claims that he was involved in an attempt to wire-tap the office of an Opposition senator.

“I have certainly not been contacted by the TT Police Service,” Al-Rawi told reporters. Noting Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley had “spoken quite well” to this issue on Thursday, Al-Rawi said, “I am absolutely confident that I am in the clear as I always am.” He reminded reporters, “I act with propriety in the discharge of my functions. I have done so for my entire life.” Al-Rawi said, “The law in this country also includes the ability to charge someone for wasting police time.Therefore you must not interrupt that process at times.”

He said the role of his ministry is not confined to civil law. “There is a role judicially recognised which also involves a certain amount of supervision,” he explained. Al-Rawi said this sphere of the ministry’s operations is carried out within “very careful parameters” of matters which involve corruption and certain aspects of criminal law. The AG promised his ministry would be making more statements on these matters in the near future.

At a news conference at Piarco International Airport on Thursday, Rowley said there was no evidence of any wrongdoing on Al-Rawi’s part. Rowley said the claims against Al-Rawi were similar to ones which were orchestrated by the United National Congress to discredit him as opposition leader. “I have lived it. I know the model and I think by now the country should know whose model that is,” Rowley told reporters. He added this was the “this was the “same people targeting someone who they are mortally afraid of.”