48 HOURS FOR ANSWERS – Sources: CoP gives deadline to complete human-trafficking probe

Police assigned to investigate allegations of human trafficking by two former People's Partnership ministers implicating politicians said they have been given 48 hours to submit their report to the Commissioner of Police.

On Wednesday, CoP Erla Harewood-Christopher directed an immediate probe into the allegations, which stemmed from a statement by the Prime Minister on February 24.

He was responding to a query from Naparima MP Rodney Charles in Parliament on the statement in a 2022 US State Department report on Trafficking in Persons that "senior government officials" were involved in human trafficking.

Dr Rowley said the government had investigated the claim and found it was referring to members of the Opposition.

The day after the PM spoke, former PP minister Devant Maharaj publicly supported his position that the report referred to opposition members and not sitting government officials.

Part of the report said: "Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action, and the government did not take action against senior government officials alleged in 2020 to be involved in human trafficking. Victim identification and services remained weak, and the government did not formally adopt the National Action Plan (NAP) for 2021-2023."

One police officer familiar with the investigation said the timeframe given to complete the probe was unrealistic, as police did not have any report from any victim, and the allegations had been made seven years later.

Still to be interviewed by police:

Among the people police intend to interview are Rowley; Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar; Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal; former PP ministers Vasant Bharath and Maharaj; former head of the Counter Trafficking Unit (CTU) Alana Wheeler; former chief immigration officer Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews; and two senior officers who were assigned to the CTU.

Bharath claimed in a newspaper interview that he and other then Cabinet ministers were propositioned by girls apparently working for a current Opposition MP.

Maharaj: I'm ready to talk to cops

Reliable sources said Senior Supt Christopher Pamponette contacted Maharaj, who now lives in Canada, via a WhatsApp telephone call on Thursday morning, but Maharaj said he was not willing to co-operate and intended to consult his lawyers.

But in a later WhatsApp response to Newsday, Maharaj dismissed this claim as "lies by the UNC."

He provided a copy of an e-mail sent to him by acting Sgt Cavelle Mills-Walters, the senior officer assigned to the CTU, at 12.10 pm on Thursday requesting an interview "within the shortest possible timeframe."

Mills-Walters also gave Maharaj the option of providing a signed statement to support his claims of human trafficking involving his former colleagues.

In his e-mail response, at 1.30 pm, which Maharaj also provided, he said: "I stand ready to communicate and co-operate with the investigation."

He said he was willing to be talk to the officer via a Zoom, Micosoft Teams or Skype video call.

Kamla: Include media ads in probe

In a media statement on Thursday, Persad-Bissessar said she welcomed the police investigation but also asked for it to be widened to probe media houses "that may be enabling human trafficking," via advertisements for escorts and personal services, as well as allegations of sexual abuse of minors unearthed in separate reports dating back to 1997 and last year.

The police are already investigating the allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

"It’s amazing that some media continue to pontificate against human trafficking at the front of their newspapers, whilst in the back in their classified ads section, they may be actively enabling human trafficking," she said.

She said she condemned human trafficking as "a vile scourge and evil in our society and all those who enable it should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

She said the CTU was formed under the PP administration in 2013 and hoped it can contribute to the human trafficking investigation. She said the Opposition had raised the allegations of the US report in July 2022 and questioned "why this important investigations is only now to be started."

She urged, "I call on everyone who is making allegations to now provide documented evidence to the TTPS to support the allegations they have made. The time for hearsay and mauvais langue is over."

Persad-Bissessar said Rowley should be the first to be interviewed by the police, as he claimed in Parliament to have "conducted a wide-ranging investigation on the matter.

"We need the factual basis of the information he supplied to Parliament last Friday."