Activist Alyssa Phillip and her mother, Camille Caresquero, are to re-appear in court on July 20 after they were granted TT$60,000 (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) bail following their arrest during the Labour Day march on June 19.
Phillip has been charged with leading a march and failing to call on participants to disperse, disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest while Caresquero faced charges of being present at a march and failing to disperse, obstructing a police officer and resisting arrest. They appeared virtually before Master Kateisha Ambrose-Persadsingh on Monday and were allowed to continue on the TT$60,000 bail which was granted at the police station following their arrests. No conditions have been attached.
The National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) says it is consulting with its lawyers to prepare a legal challenge following the arrest of Phillip and Caresquero. The union had earlier said it had invited the activist to be part of its march on Labour Day when she was arrested.
Former police commissioner Gary Griffith has accused the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) of selectively enforcing the law and relying on ‘colonial-era’ legislation to justify the arrest of Phillip and her mother.
The TTPS had defended the arrests, saying in a statement that Phillip and a small group accompanying her were not part of the authorised procession and had attempted to participate in what police described as an unlawful march.
But in a lengthy statement Griffith said the police service was relying on ‘the narrowest possible reading of the law’ while ignoring ‘common sense, decades of precedent, the nature of Labour Day, and the very purpose for which permission for public marches is required in the first place’.
‘The arrest of Alyssa Phillip and her mother on Labour Day is a slap in the face to the post-colonial struggle of every citizen,’ Griffith said.
Phillip has been leading a series of protests calling for justice in the January 20 police-involved shooting death of 31-year-old Joshua Samaroo and the subsequent decision to charge his common law wife, Kaia Sealy, 25, with the unlawfully killing of Samaroo and shooting at three police officers.
The police also allege that she was in possession of a pistol and two rounds of 9mm ammunition and had these items to endanger life. Sealy, who has been placed on TT$700,000 bail, has also been charged with discharging a firearm within 40 metres of a public road.
Phillip, who along with her mother, are on TT$10,000 bail on charges stemming from a demonstration near the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions last month. They have been charged with disorderly behavior and with influencing public opinion in a manner prejudicial to public safety under the Emergency Powers Regulation.
Prior to her arrest last Friday, Phillip told the protest march that the future of Trinidad and Tobago will not be decided by fear.
Meanwhile, Police on Monday night confirmed that they had detained Christopher Samaroo, the father of Joshua Samaroo, following public statements he made over the last weekend.
Samaroo, accompanied by his attorney, Aaron Lewis, had earlier during the day voluntarily visited police stations to clarify comments attributed to him on social media which his attorney said were ‘twisted’ out of context.
Lewis described the arrest of his client as ‘unfortunate’ adding that Samaroo was detained under Regulation 11 of the Emergency Powers Regulations, which prohibits any person from endeavouring to influence public opinion in a manner likely to be prejudicial to public safety, or from possessing any article or doing an act to facilitate such an endeavour.
Lewis said Samaroo was detained at a police station on the outskirts of the capital ‘and informed both of us that he was the subject of an investigation’.
Lewis said Samaroo was cautioned and subsequently detained pursuant to Regulation 11 of the Emergency Powers Regulations.