Police told to charge Tobago murder suspect by Friday or release him

A HIGH COURT judge has given Police Commissioner Gary Griffith until 9 am on Friday to charge the suspect in the murder of 64-year-old businessman Koongebeharry Jaisarie in Tobago, or release him.

The direction was given by Justice Frank Seepersad at the end of a habeas corpus application which was filed on Wednesday night by the suspect’s attorneys.

At a virtual court hearing on Thursday, Seepersad was told the investigation was a complex one involving having to transport the suspect to Tobago for identification parades.

The suspect was arrested on June 23, and remains in custody.

According to the habeas corpus application, filed by the suspect’s attorney Bernadette Arneaud, of Regius Chambers, was taken from Trinidad to Tobago where he is being held.

Arneaud said the suspect was arrested by police on June 23 on the Southern Main Road by Special Operations Response Team (SORT) officers.

He was then taken to his home in Couva where a search was conducted and cellphones seized. He was then taken to the Besson Street police station and then to Homicide Division offices at Riverside Plaza where he was questioned without his attorney present.

Arneaud said she was contacted by the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority to advise the suspect, and on June 25, she was present at an interview where police officers were told the suspect could not read or write.

The next day, he was again interviewed without legal counsel and pressured to sign a document, which he refused.

A pre-action protocol letter was sent on June 29 in which Arneaud was told that her client was arrested and was being held relative to investigations in a report of homicide where the body of a man was found buried in Tobago.

She was told the investigations included interviewing the suspect, several witnesses, taking of statements and reviewing CCTV footage.

Arneaud was also told it was a complex investigation that was being conducted on both islands by various agencies.

Seepersad, at the end of the hearing on Thursday, said the rights of citizens under section 4 of the Constitution could not be arbitrarily undermined.

“The police cannot, in this jurisdiction, detain persons for enquires or to facilitate the ease of ongoing investigations,” he said.

He added that there was “no magical 48-hour holding period for suspects.

“Each case is specific and the police must justify the detention. The court is of the view that rational explanation has been advanced for the nine days which has elapsed.

“These are unusual times and with the covid19 restrictions, the transport of the applicant and the setting up and conduct of an identification parade would have posed administrative challenges,” he added.

Seepersad said having been told that an identification parade was done and the police were with the Director of Public Prosecutions, “it must be decision time.”

“It is either the police charge him or release him, Accordingly, it is the order of the court that the applicant is the released on/or before 9 am on July 3 if no charges are proffered against him on the said date,” the judge ruled.