debut: 2/16/17
35,096 runs
Barbados to pay for Trini gun dealer’s arrest
The Barbados government has accepted blame for the “forcible removal” of gun dealer Brent Thomas from his hotel room on the Caribbean island by its police force in 2022. In a letter obtained by Newsday, the attorney for Barbados’ Attorney General Dale Marshall, SC, said the island’s government had accepted liability on his advice. “I have advised my client that the State of Barbados should accept liability in respect of the claim for breach of section 18 of the Constitution of Barbados,” Roger Forde, KC, informed Thomas. The parties are locked in negotiations on an agreed settlement which is likely to be substantial.
Thomas initiated legal action seeking compensation for the “egregious conduct” of the Barbadian authorities as well as several declarations relating to his “arrest, detention and forced repatriation” by the Barbados Police Service. He demanded to know who gave the directive which led to his “unlawful abduction” from a hotel room in Barbados on October 5, 2022, as stated by Justice Devindra Rampersad in his ruling on Thomas’ constitutional challenge in April 2023.In November 2022, Thomas filed a constitutional claim against the State and sued over the criminal charges against him. The latter were stayed by Rampersad who condemned the police officers, both locally and from Barbados, for their method of capturing and bringing Thomas back to TT. The State had also admitted that Thomas’ return to TT was unlawful but has appealed aspects of Rampersad’s ruling. The appeal will be heard towards the end of July.
Thomas’s legal team wants the names and ranks of the members of the TTPS, or any other party, who made the request and who contacted Caricom IMPACS (the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security), a special law enforcement agency of Caricom; the names and/or ranks or designation of the persons (from Barbados) who received this information from members of the TTPS, or any other party; the names and/or ranks of persons of the members of the TTPS, or any other party, who interacted with members of the BPS. He also wants the names of the ministers from TT and Barbados who interacted with each other as well as copies of all correspondence and written communication exchanged between them as well as with any public official or police officer, including those from IMPACS.By then he had spent several hours in the “cage” exposed to the sunlight, and sweltering heat and was not given any food or water. Around midday, he was taken to Grantley Adams International Airport, where he was “pushed violently” into an “extremely small plane” and brought back to Trinidad.
In their pre-action letter, Thomas’ attorneys said the inhumane conditions he was detained in Barbados caused him emotional trauma, anguish and immediate fear and anxiety for his life.
The Barbados government has accepted blame for the “forcible removal” of gun dealer Brent Thomas from his hotel room on the Caribbean island by its police force in 2022. In a letter obtained by Newsday, the attorney for Barbados’ Attorney General Dale Marshall, SC, said the island’s government had accepted liability on his advice. “I have advised my client that the State of Barbados should accept liability in respect of the claim for breach of section 18 of the Constitution of Barbados,” Roger Forde, KC, informed Thomas. The parties are locked in negotiations on an agreed settlement which is likely to be substantial.
Thomas initiated legal action seeking compensation for the “egregious conduct” of the Barbadian authorities as well as several declarations relating to his “arrest, detention and forced repatriation” by the Barbados Police Service. He demanded to know who gave the directive which led to his “unlawful abduction” from a hotel room in Barbados on October 5, 2022, as stated by Justice Devindra Rampersad in his ruling on Thomas’ constitutional challenge in April 2023.In November 2022, Thomas filed a constitutional claim against the State and sued over the criminal charges against him. The latter were stayed by Rampersad who condemned the police officers, both locally and from Barbados, for their method of capturing and bringing Thomas back to TT. The State had also admitted that Thomas’ return to TT was unlawful but has appealed aspects of Rampersad’s ruling. The appeal will be heard towards the end of July.
Thomas’s legal team wants the names and ranks of the members of the TTPS, or any other party, who made the request and who contacted Caricom IMPACS (the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security), a special law enforcement agency of Caricom; the names and/or ranks or designation of the persons (from Barbados) who received this information from members of the TTPS, or any other party; the names and/or ranks of persons of the members of the TTPS, or any other party, who interacted with members of the BPS. He also wants the names of the ministers from TT and Barbados who interacted with each other as well as copies of all correspondence and written communication exchanged between them as well as with any public official or police officer, including those from IMPACS.By then he had spent several hours in the “cage” exposed to the sunlight, and sweltering heat and was not given any food or water. Around midday, he was taken to Grantley Adams International Airport, where he was “pushed violently” into an “extremely small plane” and brought back to Trinidad.
In their pre-action letter, Thomas’ attorneys said the inhumane conditions he was detained in Barbados caused him emotional trauma, anguish and immediate fear and anxiety for his life.
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