AG: Suspect gets back property within 14 days, or asap

PROPERTY seized by the State as possible criminal assets, but which is later shown not to be such, must be returned to its owner within 14 days-plus, the Senate agreed in committee yesterday. Under debate was the Civil Asset Recovery and Management and Unexplained Wealth Bill 2019.

Opposition Senator Wade Mark had urged the property be returned forthwith, but most Senators instead supported a fortnight-plus period proposed by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.

However, one Independent Senator, Amrita Deonarine, joined with the six Opposition members to vote for Mark’s amendment, while her eight colleagues backed the Government’s stance to defeat Mark’s amendment by 23 votes to seven.

The final draft said after an initial seizure order expires, the property must be returned “within 14 days, or as soon as is reasonably practicable.”

Before the vote, Independent Senator Anthony Vieira told the AG that the asset seizure, done with justification, renders the subject a victim and leaves him out of his home or out of his business for the period of confiscation. The AG quipped, “But you are not out of due process.”

Opposition Senator Gerald Ramdeen remarked, “There are cases before the courts of exhibits retained for eight or nine years because there is no provision in law that compels them to return it.” The AG countered that he must adjudge the practicality of how quickly the State was to return an item, as he considered the case of a yacht in St Martin.

Vieira retorted by saying the business of the yacht owner, innocent of any wrongdoing, would be in trouble for the period his boat was confiscated, as he urged a balance between the rights of the State and those of the individual.