TT-Barbados spar over Trinidadian abduction

Trinidad and Barbados have always had their non-violent, neighborly rivalries be it a tussle over flying fish stocks, maritime boundaries or who has the better soca music.

Now the two are at it again, this time for entirely different reasons. Opposition politicians and attorneys in Trinidad are accusing the Trinidadian and Barbados governments of conspiring to unlawfully abduct a wanted Trinidadian businessman in Barbados last October and renditioning him back to Trinidad where he was detained by police.

Registered arms dealer, Brent Thomas says he was arrested by heavily armed Barbadian officers at his hotel, taken to the airport and placed on a Regional Security System (RSS) plane back to Trinidad. He had said that he was on his way to the US for medical treatment. His attorneys argue that he was illegally abducted based on false information fed to Barbadian police, but regional security officials say that his arrest was fully coordinated by the umbrella CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (Impacs).

Thomas was last year charged with several counts of possession of prohibited weapons and four counts of illegal explosives. He was granted just over $100,000 bail. Despite being a licensed dealer, he was charged after an audit had shown that the guns and explosives had not been accounted for until the audit found them at his home.

Local media reported this week that Trinidad police had indeed obtained seven warrants for his arrest but his lawyers and High Court Judge Devindra Rampersad argue that regular legal procedures were bypassed and promptly stopped his criminal trial late last month. The judge ruled that he was “unlawfully abducted” even as the state has indicated that it will appeal that decision. A hearing is set for next week.

Under pressure to explain what had transpired, Barbadian Attorney General Dale Marshall told his local parliament that neither prime minister was aware of the situation as it was overseen by the regional security apparatus. The AG even claimed that Thomas had willingly returned home and was not in fact abducted as his attorneys and supporters claim.

Meanwhile, T&T’s Attorney General Reggie Armour apologized to Barbados in parliament on Wednesday for what he labelled as “a slur” on the island of the flying fish.

“The Barbados police requested to see the warrants of arrest under which Mr. Thomas was wanted in Trinidad and Tobago. They were duly provided.”

The problem with the fiasco, it seems, has to do with the AG’s explanation that the state prosecutor’s office had advised local police to inform Barbadian colleagues of the arrest warrants the office had not advised how the arrest was to be made and how Thomas was to be returned home. AG Armour said the state has already alerted lawyers in London to be ready to fight this case in the event it reaches the Privy Council for determination, noting that “we are ready immediately to protect the state by urgent access to our final court of appeal — the Privy Council.”