Author: user user

High Court Judge, Vigel Paul, Monday ordered the release of 69-year-old Star Sabga, a relative of Genevieve Hadeed, who along with her businessman husband, Dominic, were released last weekend after the Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander revoked a preventative detention order (PDO) that kept them behind bars for a month.

The Hadeeds and Sabga had been detained amid allegations that they were conspiring to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Attorney General John Jeremie and other members of her government.

Alexander had revoked the PDOs after he said he had reviewed the legal, medical and constitutional issues surrounding the Hadeed’s detention, adding that their continued detention was no longer proportionate while the police investigation continued. In his decision, Justice Paul questioned the need for Sabga to remain detained after the Hadeeds were released when Alexander revoked the PDOs against them last week.

‘If persons set to be at the centre of conspiracy can safely be at large, the court cannot see how the continued detention of this elderly woman can be said to be necessary to prevent danger,’ Justice Paul said.

He said that he found there was no evidence that Sabga was involved in furthering the alleged conspiracy to assassinate key government officials after she made statements in an intercepted telephone conversation with Genevieve in June.

‘There is absence of any evidence that she engaged in any conspiracy or engaged in any step other than initial conversation. A case of ongoing danger must require more than intelligence,’ Justice Paul said.

Sabga’s lawyer Rishi Dass had argued that an intercepted telephone conversation between Sabga and Genevieve Hadeed on June 11 had been given a ‘twisted’ or ‘farcical’ interpretation by law enforcement officials.

He noted that conversation took place after Jeremie made comments in relation to the ‘one per cent’ while piloting a motion in Parliament to extend the ongoing State of Emergency (SoE) by three months.

‘It came a day after the AG’s attack on a minority ethnic group in this country. They were venting in a private conversation as anyone may do after being subject to such an attack,’ Dass said, describing the claims of a murder conspiracy as far-fetched.

‘There must be evidence of conspiring not just two women venting among themselves. Worse is said on political haustings everyday It is practically a thought crime,’ Dass said, adding that while Alexander had initially claimed that Sabga and the Hadeed were part of a conspiracy to assassinate key government officials when he issued the PDOs against them, he subsequently claimed that Sabga’s continued detention was necessary as her statements had the potential to incite violence against public officials.

‘There is now the wholesale abandonment of assassination plot,’ Dass said, telling the Court that Sabga’s statements could not amount to sedition as they were not broadcast to the public.

Dass argued that the statements linked to Sabga were initially ascribed to the Hadeeds before Alexander disclosed a transcript of the intercepted communication, last week, saying ‘it casts a dark shadow on the intelligence services of Trinidad and Tobago if they cannot get that right’.

Dass also questioned the need for Sabga’s detention while the probe continues, noting that the police were still in the process of analysing the electronic devices of the Hadeeds, who were released from PDOs last week.

‘No electronic devices were taken from Miss Star Sabga,’ Dass said, telling the Court that his client had lost 29 pounds while detained in prison over the past month.

Dass said that the probe could continue while she remains under house arrest.

‘We are not seeking to detain Jason Bourne but a 69-year-old cheese maker,’ he said, accusing the state of leaking the recording of the 15 minute intercepted conversation which was widely shared on social media over the weekend.

But in his response, state attorney Gerald Ramdeen called on Justice Paul to deny the request, arguing that Sabga could not seek interim release after filing a constitutional motion alleging a breach of her rights and should have sought to judicial review Alexander’s decision to disregard the decision of the SoE Review Tribunal to recommend her release.

He said that a panel of the Court of Appeal ordered the Hadeeds’ conditional release before the SoE Review Tribunal recommended that their and Sabga’s detentions should be lifted.

‘The court is being asked to grant interim relief in a constitutional motion, while the minister’s decision under the constitution remains intact. Relief under the constitution is discretionary,’ Ramdeen said, calling on the judge not to second guess the risk assessment done by Alexander, the police, and the Strategic Services Agency (SSA).

‘Judges do not have jurisdiction to assess the assessments of intelligence services. The judiciary is not qualified to undertake assessments of risks,’ Ramdeen said, adding Is it permissible for the Judiciary to trespass on the constitutionally protected realm of the executive?’.

Ramdeen also called on Justice Paul to give deference to Alexander’s assessment based on his responsibility in relation to national security issues and his role in issuing PDOs under the SoE.

‘If you take the decision to release the applicant and tomorrow the Prime Minister is executed, are you responsible to the electorate?’ he said.

A five-day meeting of the Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators (COTA) bean here on Monday with regional tax administrations being urged to embrace the technological and digital developments including artificial intelligence (AI) so as to improve their functions.

Addressing the COTA’s 27th General Assembly and Technical Conference, Guyana’s Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh said while the main function of tax administrations is extremely important to the economic and fiscal well-being of regional countries, it is also necessary that they embrace the new technologies that would also be beneficial to foreign investors. He said that in the case of Guyana for example, it has endeavoured over the years to deploy using current technology additional solutions, digital solutions that have allowed for an app that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) now uses to allow for electronic filing of taxes, tax returns and electronic interaction with the Revenue Authority.

‘And we have seen an astronomical take-up of these digital solutions,’ he said, adding that it would be fair to say that recent technological developments, particularly in relation to big data, machine learning, and the tools of data science and data analytics, ‘have opened a whole new host of possibilities that were hitherto not available to us.

‘Today, we have tools available, readily available, that allow for data mining at a speed and with an efficiency and with a degree of sophistication that just a few years ago were simply not available.’

Singh said that there are few examples of areas in public administration where these tools and technologies have the potential to yield and have the potential to yield as significant benefits in tax administration.

‘ Because if you consider, for example, today the speed with which we can examine data submitted in relation to declarations, prices, volumes, declared values, and conduct very sophisticated analytics on this data with a dizzying speed in nanoseconds, the possibilities, if you will permit a little cliche, the possibilities are almost boundless, almost limitless.’

Singh said that international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) having being doing a lot of work on the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence.

The conference here is being held under the theme ‘Future-Ready CARICOM Tax Administration – Smart, Data-Driven and AI-Enabled for Sustainable Revenue,’ and Singh said the deliberations provide an opportunity for delegates ‘to get …acquainted with cutting edge thought on how information technology, artificial intelligence in particular, and AI tools can be used to transform tax administrations.

‘And I want to urge that we do so not only in Guyana, but …I want to urge our brothers and sisters from other CARICOM jurisdictions to consider carefully how these tools can be deployed for more efficient and effective tax administration.’

In his address, Singh said he has always sought to address the changing role of tax administrations across the region.

He said while the main function of these adminstrations is revenue protection and revenue collection, they also have an important responsibility to administer the tax laws and revenue laws of the countries.

‘But in discharging that function you also have a very important responsibility in business and trade facilitation because the efficient, fair and equitable application and administration of our tax laws is an absolutely indispensable component in the health of our environment for doing business.

‘People doing business in our respective jurisdictions…need to know that they have a predictable regime of fiscal laws that will be applied fairly, equitably and efficiently,’ Singh said, adding that ‘investors coming to our countries expect …are looking for predictability in the fiscal frameworks in their host countries in which they are operating’.

He said that in rapidly growing economies, like in Guyana ‘that technology holds significant possibilities that are as yet unlocked.

‘And I want to urge that the Guyana Revenue Authority and tax jurisdictions across the Caribbean remain mindful of this dual responsibility.And I don’t believe that they are conflicting or conflictual. I don’t believe that they collide with each other.

‘Instead, I believe that they are complementary to each other. I believe facilitating investment and trade in an efficient way does not conflict in any way with revenue protection and revenue collection.

‘If we maintain a revenue administration that enjoys a high degree of confidence and demonstrates world class efficiency in the quality of the service that it provides to our citizens, then I believe that will redound to even stronger economic growth, more investment and therefore significant revenue expansion as well,’ Singh added.

The conference will explore topics including how technology, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence can strengthen tax administration, improve compliance, enhance taxpayer services, and support efficient and sustainable revenue mobilisation across the Community.

In her address to the conference, COTA’s president, Felicia Ellie, who is also the the Comptroller of Inland Revenue in St.Lucia, said the event comes at the defining moment for tax administrations across the region.

‘For while our countries may differ in size, geography, and economic circumstances, we all wrestle with similar challenges. We operate in an increasingly complex environment where technological innovation, changing taxpayer expectations, emerging business models, and growing demands for public services require us to rethink how we administer our tax systems. ‘

She said all tax administrations, whether large or small, more advanced or less advanced, need to improve compliance.

‘We want to simplify our processes. We want to harness the technology that is at hand and somehow all of us want to convince our taxpayers that filing on time is better, or filing earlier, I should say, is better than waiting at the last minute.’

She said that the first part of the theme of the confeerence ‘is not simply about adopting new technologies, but it is about transforming our organisations.

‘It is about investing in our people, strengthening governance, safeguarding taxpayer information and ensuring that innovation is guided by fairness, transparency, and accountability.

‘It is about being committed to maintaining public trust and delivering equitable outcomes for all taxpayers. Data-driven, our tax systems are being called upon to do more with less, to be faster, smarter, ore transparent, and more responsive,’ she said, adding that data has become one of the most valuable assets and artificial intelligence is rapidly moving from being a topic of discussion to becoming an operational reality.

The organisers said that another highlight of the meeting here will be a High-Level Regional Meeting on Tax and Development being undertaken in collaboration with the OECD and other regional and international partners in the taxation arena.