Mark opposes bill to empower DPP

OPPOSITION Senator Wade Mark vowed to oppose a bill that empowers the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to indict a suspect, as he alluded that this office holder can only be named with the approval of the Prime Minister who can veto his/her appointment.

He spoke in the Senate on Tuesday on the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) (Amendment)(No 2) Bill, 2019.

“That officeholder can be seen as having some sort of link...” he said, only to be cut off by Senate President Christine Kangaloo chiding, “That is inappropriate.”

Mark resumed, “I can’t say it here, but I will say it on the platform. I don’t have the right to say it here.”

He said the bill creates a major gap in the rights of citizens, by empowering a prosecutor a unilateral right to opt out of an ongoing preliminary inquiry to instead go to trial in the High Court, even if the other side disagrees.

The bill creates a collision with human rights in section 4 of the TT Constitution, Mark said. “That can only take place under Idi Amin in Uganda but not in democratic TT,” he stormed. “Can we as a Parliament agree to legislation of a retrospective nature?”

Mark said while the Government could pass the bill in Parliament with their simple majority, the Opposition would seek to strike it down in the law courts.

“The Government has its own agenda, its own political objectives and is using legislation to achieve its own agenda.”

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said the Opposition was confused as Mark had derided the bill that his colleague Saddam Hosein had earlier boasted of as being “UNC legislation.” The AG said the Opposition had ignored the fact that the only bit of this legislation ever passed by the former UNC government had been the infamous “section 34.”