Christian Chandler alleges police intimidation

ATTORNEYS for Christian Chandler, head of the police service’s legal unit, have given Deputy Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob until 4 pm on Thursday to justify his arrest, or they will go to court to have him released from custody.

Attorneys Wayne Sturge and Alexia Romero issued Jacob with a pre-action protocol letter on Thursday morning.

Chandler was arrested at his Maraval home on Wednesday. He is being held at the Maloney police station. His attorneys said it had been over 20 hours since his arrest without a charge being laid against him.

They also said Chandler’s family members went to the police station on Thursday morning to deliver food and water, but officers there refused to accept them and allegedly “intimidated and interrogated” Chandler’s relatives.

Romero said the offences for which Chandler was arrested stemmed from an incident at sea on August 5 relative to a breach of the public health regulations, but the police had had more than two months to investigate and yet “are still unable to make a determination either way.”

The attorneys also accused investigating officers of trying to get Chandler to implicate himself. Romero said since Chandler’s arrest there has been “evidence" of police involved in the investigation expecting to interview him so that he can reveal "evidence that would allow him to self-incriminate himself in the commission of criminal offences." She said this was being done so that the police would have reasonable cause to charge him.

This, she said, was unlawful.

“What has been pellucidly clear is that at present the investigating officers have no evidence that our client was involved in the commission of any criminal offence.

“The further deprivation of our client’s liberty in those circumstances is clearly unlawful.”

Romero said the police, though they have the power to investigate the commission of any criminal offence, must discharge that duty in the public interest and not unlawfully.

“The actions of the police officers are clearly oppressive," she argued, "as they are designed to sap the willpower of our client in the hope that he will surrender evidence that can form the basis for a criminal charge.

“I trust that you will understand the prejudice that flows from this type of action in relation to any possible prosecution,” Romero told Jacob.

She gave the acting commissioner until 4 pm to release Chandler or his attorneys will seek a writ of habeas corpus to justify to the court his continued detention.