UNC calls for JSC meeting over human trafficker's escape

The Opposition will ask for an urgent meeting of Parliament’s Joint Select Committee on National Security to discuss the absconding of Anthony Smith during his trial for human trafficking.

The two UNC representatives on the JSC, Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial and MP for Oropuche East Dr Roodal Moonilal, will also request that National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds and the ministry’s Electronic Monitoring Unit appear before the committee to answer questions about Smith absconding.

Smith removed his ankle monitoring bracelet and disappeared six days after the start of his trial.

He was eventually tried in-absentia, found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Lutchmedial told Newsday the matter needed to be addressed urgently as it posed risks to national security.

“We believe it's something that requires urgent attention and that we must inquire further, because electronic monitoring is an integral part of offender management and managing persons who are on bail. If that system is not functioning as it should be then the entire country is at risk. It is a huge national security risk.”

“It puts the entire system of justice into disrepute when you can convict persons and then simply cannot find them to actually imprison them, especially for serious matters like human trafficking,” Lutchmedial added.

She said she expected a positive response from committee chairman, MP for Port of Spain South Keith Scotland.

“When ammunition with TT Police Service (TTPS) and TT Defence Force (TTDF) markings were being found on crime scenes, we wrote the chairman about it and he acceded to our request. So I'm hoping that we get a similar response in this case, because likewise, it is also a matter that I think is of grave concern to the public.

"It deals with public confidence in our systems, like the defence force, police and the entire national security infrastructure and personnel working within it. When you have matters affecting public confidence in those institutions, I think it is exceptionally urgent. So I hope that the chairman will treat this one with the same level of urgency.”

Lutchmedial was unable to give a timeline for the meeting but said she anticipated the other members of the committee would see past politics and treat the matter with the urgency it deserves.

Smith’s conviction has also been marred by the judiciary’s subsequent revelation that during the trial, witnesses claimed police officers were clients of Smith’s 16-year-old sex-trafficking victim.

The judiciary has since forwarded the information to the counter-trafficking unit.

Asked for a response to the claims, TTPS spokesperson, Joanne Archie said she was unable to say anything as the matter was under investigation.

The Police Complaints Authority has since launched its own investigation but Lutchmedial suggested the Professional Standards Bureau should also look into the matter.

“The implications of someone who is able to escape electronic monitoring, having been involved in a matter that involves police officers, certainly raises some eyebrows. So we may have to look at whether or not there's a conspiracy or somebody is helping somebody else within the whole system and really defeating the whole purpose of the system.

“Once there is involvement of law enforcement in criminal activity, you're like a hamster staying on a wheel because you can do the most, but if the system is being undermined by persons within it, then you have problems.”

Criminologist Dr Randy Seepersad said the revelation that police were involved was disturbing but not surprising.

He told Newsday police corruption was nothing new and although the scale of it was impossible to measure, it has a massive impact on society.

“If officers are in collusion with criminal elements, it really subverts the justice process. Criminals, if they engage with police officers, will operate with impunity as they know they will get warned beforehand. They know that probably nobody's going to touch them because of the linkages that they have.”

He said greed, selfishness and a lack of patriotism was to blame for the corruption in the police service.

“Officers need to see the country as their country. When they collude with criminal elements, or even when they engage in corrupt practises and so forth, it’s really the nation as a whole that they are hurting.

They hurt their friends, their family and even though, in the short run they might make a few extra dollars here and there, they’re hurting the country as a result of it.”

He called for commitment to a change in culture in the police service.

“There should be a call for all hands on deck. We should really have that kind of commitment to citizen security and start to display the kind of patriotism that we need to really push this nation forward…and we need to be committed to it.”

Smith’s conviction signalled a landmark moment for TT courts as it was the first under the Trafficking in Persons Act, a fact acknowledged by the US government.

In a statement to Newsday, an embassy spokesman said, the US government was encouraged by TT’s first human trafficking conviction.

"We appreciate the efforts of the Government of TT, civil society, survivors, and family members involved in this case as we continue to work together to combat human trafficking, which is modern slavery.”

Lutchmedial said while it might be a historic conviction, it was unlikely to act as a deterrent.

“To really create a deterrent effect out of convictions, you need something that's sustained, where you show there's a machinery in place and that it's actually working.

"With just one conviction, people might end up conceiving that you just got lucky with that particular case (while) other people who are doing it, they will just be more careful.

"It seems unlikely to me that just having a single conviction at this point in time is really going to make a dent in the problem itself.”

She said, “Based on deterrence theory and how it really works, what we really need to deter crime is a sustained ability of a criminal justice system to detect crimes when they happen. That's a big problem that we face, because that isn't happening with a very large range of crimes.”

Police continue to hunt for Smith who is brown in complexion, five feet seven inches tall, medium built and has a scar on his forehead.

Smith also has tattoos on his neck, both arms, and the fingers of his left hand.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to contact the nearest police station, 555 or 800-TIPS.