No word from Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley on Brent Thomas issue

BARBADOS Prime Minister Mia Mottley is not speaking about the Brent Thomas matter at present.

Whether or not the Prime Minister met with Mottley while he was on vacation in Barbados last weekend is not a question for the Barbados government to answer.

These comments were made on Monday by Roy Morris, director of Citizen Engagement and Media Relations at the Office of the Prime Minister in Barbados.

In an e-mailed response to questions sent by Newsday, Morris said, "Currently, the Prime Minister is not speaking on the subject."

Morris said Barbados Attorney General Dale Marshall has already spoken on this issue, and has asked the Barbdos Police Commissioner Richard Boyce for a report on the matter."

"I am not aware that that report has been received, or that the Attorney General is yet ready to speak."

Morris was asked whether or not Dr Rowley met at all with Mottley while he was in Barbados last weekend.

He said, "I do believe that the appropriate place for such an enquiry on Mr Rowley's activities while he was on holiday would be Mr Rowley's office."

There were no articles in either the Barbados Nation or Barbados Advocate newspapers about Rowley being on holiday in Barbados last weekend.

There were no posts on Rowley and Mottley's personal Facebook or Twitter accounts to indicate that they met while Rowley was in Barbados.

He left for Barbados on May 5 to spend the weekend there and was scheduled to return home this week.

Officials at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) were unavailable for comment.

Rowley could not be reached for comment.

At a news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's on May 4, he said his trip to Barbados had been planned on April 14, long before the Brent Thomas matter made headlines.

He had not held formal or informal talks with anyone in the Barbados government on this issue.

Rowley said, "The Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago had absolutely nothing to do with this matter,"

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds made a similar comment in a live televised broadcast on state-owned television station TTT, from his ministry on Abercromby Street, Port of Spain on May 1.

Rowley and Hinds said the matter would be appealed. That appeal was filed on May 5.

The Thomas affair

On April 25, Justice Devindra Rampersad made scathing findings against police officers in his judgment, in which he stayed criminal charges against Thomas, a firearms dealer.

Thomas was arrested on September 29, and later released. He was re-arrested in Barbados, from where he intended to travel to Miami to meet his cardiologist. He said he was forcibly returned to Trinidad.

Thomas was later charged with possession of weapons including grenades and rifles.

In his judgment, Rampersad criticised the police for what he described as an “abduction in Barbados.” He said this involved what Thomas described as the use of a non-commercial aeroplane owned by the Defence Force.

In Parliament on October 28, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal called on Hinds to say whether or not this was so. Minister in the OPM Stuart Young said, "The fact is that did not happen and it was an RSS plane – the Regional Security System (RSS) out of Barbados."

The RSS was established in 1982 to allow Caricom a collective response to security threats facing the region. Its member states are Barbados, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines.

In response to Young's comment, on April 30 Moonilal called for the Barbados government to clear the air.