Category: CANA News

Two former police officers have been arrested and charged with murder that occurred in 2014.

A police statement said that following the incident of a reported kidnapping on Wednesday March 20, 2014, police officers conducted a search at a house in Princes Town, in south Central Trinidad.

The statement said approximately 345 feet from the premises, there appeared to be burnt debris in a busy area.

According to the statement based on the advice last Friday from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Lyndon Brown, 40, and Jesse Burke, 40, were formally charged with the murder of 29-year-old Davindra Siewdass.

The two men have since appeared before a magistrate’s court where the matter has been adjourned to April 7, 2027 for a status hearing. A sufficiency hearing has been scheduled for April 21, 2027.

The police said that additionally, three men were also been arrested and detained in 2014 for the murder and that the investigations are continuing.

The Trinbago Knight Riders’ forgettable outing in this year’s Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League ended in disappointing fashion when they went down by six wickets to the Guyana Amazon Warriors at Providence Stadium here on Friday.

Asked to bat first in their final match, the five-time champions were undone by spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s four-wicket haul and could only muster 126 for eight in their 20 overs.

Despite losing a couple wickets early on, the Amazon Warriors never looked in danger, eventually breezing to 127 for four in 18.4 overs to extend their lead at the top of the points table.

With the defeat, their seventh in 10 games, the Knight Riders – the winningest franchise in the CPL – recorded their worst-ever performance in the tournament, finishing bottom of the table for the first time in its 13-year history.

The visitors actually got a solid start, with openers Colin Munro and Alex Hales putting on 41 runs inside five overs.

However, once Miraz broke the partnership by having Munro caught for 26 off 16 balls and then bowling the dangerous Nicholas Pooran the next delivery for a first ball duck, the Knight Riders’ top order crumbled.

Imran Tahir brought Hales’ miserable knock of 22 from 26 balls to an end and Miraz returned to dismiss both Jyd Goolie and Sunil Narine to leave the Amazon Warriors 84 for five in the 15th over.

Justin Greaves propped the lower order up with his patient 35 off 37 balls, until speedster Shamar Joseph cleaned him up and also accounted for Joshua Da Silva for four to see them limp to their subpar total.

Miraz finished with 4-23, while Joseph claimed 2-27.

The Amazon Warriors lost openers Glenn Phillips and Mavendra Dindyal cheaply to see them slip to 36 for two in the seventh over.

However, a 49-run partnership in six overs between Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer effectively sealed the deal.

Hetmyer was dismissed by Sunil Narine after scoring 28 off 19 balls, and Miraz faced 14 balls for his two runs before losing his wicket to Lahiru Kumara, but Hope along with Quentin Sampson carried the Amazon Warriors to victory with eight balls to spare.

Hope finished unbeaten on 42 off 35 balls, while Sampson scored 12 not out in their unbroken partnership of 34.

President Irfaan Ali says one of the largest retail operators in the Gulf region, with an extensive international sourcing network, has expressed an interest in establishing operations in Guyana.

President Ali, who wrapped up a three day State visit to Qatar said that he held talks with chairman and managing director of Abu Dhabi-based LuLu Group International, M. A. Yusuff Ali, who expressed the company’s commitment to investing in Guyana.

‘Mr Ali expressed his commitment to investing in Guyana and indicated that a technical team will visit our country within the next 30 days to explore potential opportunities,’ President Ali said.

The Guyanese head of state also met with the Qatar Airways Group chief executive officer ,Hamad Ali Al-Khater, and a statement issued here said that the discussions focused on the possibility of including Guyana within the airline’s network for both passenger and cargo services.

It said that such connectivity could strengthen Guyana’s links with the Middle East and other international markets served through Qatar Airways’ global network

Prior to his departure, President Ali held talks with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.

‘During the meeting, they discussed cooperation relations between the two countries and ways to enhance and develop them in various fields,’ according to a statement issued by Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It said that the two sides also exchanged views on ‘several regional and international issues of mutual interest.’

As part of the visit, President Ali toured Education City in Al Rayyan, including the 40,000-seat Education City Stadium, one of the venues constructed for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The Trinidad and Tobago government Friday said that a new National Committee on Reparations will be appointed in ‘due course’.

CARICOM Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers told Parliament that the ‘matter of reparatory justice is of utmost importance to the government, and the policy to further advance this issue will be guided by the Cabinet in due course’.

Asked by Opposition Leader Penelope Beckles what is the government’s plan for the reinstatement of the Committee that was disbanded in October last year, Sobers replied that the Opposition Leader ‘being a seasoned practitioner here in this Honourable House, would well be okura with the measures that have to be adopted before such a decision is taken, and as I indicated in my original response, the Cabinet will do so in due course’.

Beckles had asked the question in Parliament after indicating that Trinidad and Tobago was one out of 123 countries that voted in favour of a United Nations motion that was moved on march 25 this year declaring chattel enslavement as the gravest crime against humanity.

The Trinidad and Tobago National Committee on Reparations was originally established under the 2010-15 People’s Partnership coalition government led by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, but it was later dismantled under the People’s National Movement (PNM) when it came into office.

Cabinet later reappointed a reconstituted National Committee on Reparations headed by chairman Dr. Claudius Fergus in September 2023, which operated until its subsequent disbandment in October 2025.

The Deputy Chairman of the National Council on Reparations, Bert Samuels, says Jamaica has an ‘enormously strong’ case after the country filed a petition to Britain’s King Charles earlier this week regarding enslavement of Africans in the Caribbean island for hundreds of years.

The petition asks the King to use his authority under the Judicial Committee Act 1833 to refer three specific questions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Jamaica’s highest court of appeal to determine the legal obligation of the UK to provide redress for the transatlantic slave trade. Samuels, an attorney, was among a group of Jamaican and United Kingdom lawyers who formulated the petition that was filed to King Charles on Monday.

‘The petition is enormously strong because the questions that we are raising are backed by historical fact… Professor Verene Shepherd has provided the evidence. So it’s a mix between history and law,’ said Samuels.

‘At least eight lawyers have looked at this matter, and we think that the strength of it is the quality of lawyering that has gone into the petition,’ Samuels said, rejecting criticism from Lord Jonathan Sumption, a former judge of the Privy Council who dismissed the strategy as ‘nonsense’.

Lord Sumption that Jamaica is actively taking advantage of a Britain that is ‘riven by self-doubt and guilt’ and ‘no longer confident in itself’ in order to extract a massive financial payout.

He rejected the core idea that Jamaica has a valid legal entitlement to reparations, echoing broader assessments from British legal circles that the legal framework for the petition is highly precarious.

But Samuels said ‘I think it is grossly inappropriate for any lawyer or judge who has not read the petition to comment on the petition.

‘Why didn’t he check with us to hear our view and distill our view and give his informed opinion? I think his bias has outweighed his common sense,’ said Samuels, who describes himself as a Pan-Africanist lawyer.

He insists that the petition was filed at the right time, one day after the 245th anniversary of the Zong massacre.

‘Let us remember that in 2001, in Durban, there was a classification of transatlantic slavery as a crime against humanity…And then let us go further now to 2009, when Jamaica decided to form a reparation council, the first Caribbean territory that did that, and then move to 2015, where the parliament [gave] bipartisan support for reparation, and then to March 2026, when Ghana [and the United Nations] said that transatlantic chattel slavery is the worst crime against humanity known to humans…

‘One day after the departure of the Zong… before the atrocity where 140 of us were thrown overboard, the timing was great. The 7th of September 2026 will go down in history as the best time for reparatory justice.’

Samuels also addressed complaints over the necessity of a delegation led by the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange to travel to London to file the petition.

‘There is a huge Diaspora in England [with] Jamaicans thirsty to see that we are giving them the support and they give us the support. Secondly, we also came to go to the British Museum [where] we had to interface with those who are hosting and holding artefacts that we think belong to us.

‘I don’t think that they would take us seriously if we took up the phone to call and ask about our artefacts. We are showing them how serious we are to come here.,’ Samuels said, calling for support of Jamaica’s reparations petition.

‘Our minister is walking in the shoe of Paul Bogle. Paul Bogle walked with a petition from Stony Gut, 45 miles to Spanish Town to petition Governor Eyre. Was he begging? So if we honour Paul Bogle, we have to honour this process,’ he added.

After filing the petition on Monday, Grange said it was her ‘duty not only as a proud woman of African descent, but as a member of the human race to pursue reparations for the hundreds of years of chattel enslavement of African people on plantations in Jamaica’.

Suriname and Venezuela Friday agreed to further their bilateral cooperation focusing also on food security, the economy and with Caracas indicating a willingness to share its experience with oil exploration, production, and gas with the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.

The two countries signed the various bilateral agreements following talks here between visiting Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriquez and host head of state, Jennifer Geerlings-Simons.

A joint statement issued after the talks said that the agreements cover, among others, fisheries and aquaculture, agri-food and productive alliances, aviation, tourism, the oil and gas sector, higher education and specialized training. Agreements have also been made regarding academic cooperation and diplomatic training.

‘Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1975, Suriname and Venezuela have been very good neighbors and friends,’ said President Greelings-Simons, adding that the relationship is based on mutual respect, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and peaceful cooperation.

‘Success must be visible above all in concrete and sustainable results for our populations,’ said the Surinamese head of state, who has been invited to the South American country for a follow-up visit.

Rodríguez expressed her appreciation for the humanitarian aid Suriname provided to her country following the devastating double earthquakes of June 24 that killed thousands of people.

According to the joint statement, under the agreement,200 Venezuelan fishermen from Nueva Esparta and Sucre will receive a permit to fish in an Atlantic corridor made available by Suriname.

Rodríguez said she was particularly pleased with the fisheries agreement, noting that it would benefit both countries and that it also offers Suriname opportunities for the export of grouper and snapper, among other species, to the United States and other markets.

The two leaders have also agreed on improving airlinks with Rodríguez announcing that commercial flights between Suriname and Venezuela in addition to the so-called ‘fifth freedom’ that would give airlines more opportunities to operate connections via both countries.

The improved air connection is also intended to stimulate tourism. Both countries want to bring tour operators closer together and jointly develop multi-destination tourism.

Rodríguez said that in addition to air connections, sea transport between the two countries must also be further developed.

Venezurla has also offered to share its experience with Suriname in developing the oil and gas industry with Rodríguez indicating that the Venezuelan research institute Intevep and the Universidad Venezolana de los Hidrocarburos possess technological facilities that can be deployed for the collaboration.

In education, agreement was reached for Venezuela to make educational opportunities available with Rodríguez stating that the doors of the Universidad Latinoamericana de Medicina are being opened to students wishing to study medicine in Venezuela.

New York City Council Member Farah N. Louis, is calling on the United States Senate to pass legislation and for President Donald Trump to sign the measure requiring the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

The resolution comes as Haiti continues to face severe political instability, widespread gang violence, displacement, food insecurity, and a humanitarian crisis. According to 2026 United Nations reporting cited in the resolution, nearly 1.47 million people remain displaced by violence and 5.8 million people face food insecurity in the French-speaking Caribbean country.

Louis, the daughter of Haitian and Bahamian immigrants, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that TPS provides eligible nationals of designated countries with protection from deportation and authorization to work legally in the United States when extraordinary conditions make safe return impossible.

Louis, who on Thursday introduced resolution, noted that Haiti was first designated for TPS following the devastating 2010 earthquake, which killed an estimated 220,000 people, injured more than 300,000, and left approximately 1.5 million people homeless.

‘The resolution underscores the direct impact of the loss of TPS on New York City,’ said Louis, adding that an estimated 350,000 Haitian nationals have held TPS in the United States, including approximately 40,000 in New York.

‘New York City is home to one of the nation’s largest Haitian immigrant communities, with a vibrant cultural and economic presence that is especially visible in Flatbush’s Little Haiti, a neighborhood formally recognized for its Haitian culture and community. Haiti is facing a profound humanitarian and security crisis, and sending Haitian families back into these conditions is unconscionable.

‘Haitian New Yorkers are our neighbours, our workers, our business owners, our parents and our community leaders. They have built lives and contributed to the fabric of this city, and they deserve the opportunity to continue doing so safely and legally’.

She said New York City must stand with the Haitian community, ‘and we must use every level of government to demand that TPS protections are restored’.

The resolution notes that, in June 2025, the DHS announced its decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation. Haitian nationals subsequently challenged the decision in federal court, temporarily preserving their protections.

However, on June 25, 2026, the US Supreme Court reversed lower-court orders that had postponed the termination, allowing the Trump administration to end Haiti’s TPS designation.

US Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer, has also called for the continuation of TPS protections for Haitians.

In remarks urging the US Senate to support legislation extending TPS for Haiti, Schumer described the Trump administration’s decision to cancel TPS as ‘cruel and counterproductive, especially as Haiti remains unstable and unsafe.

‘Haitians living in the United States under TPS are legally working, paying taxes, and greatly boosting the state economy to the tune of $1.1 billion per year,’ he said.

‘I’m grateful to Council Member Farah Louis for her leadership in supporting my legislation to restore TPS for Haitians, and I urge Senate Republicans to join me in passing this bill ASAP.’

Schumer said, emphasising New York’s particular connection to the Haitian community and his commitment to protecting Haitian New Yorkers.

The federal legislation would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for TPS through three months after January 20, 2029.

Louis said enactment of the federal legislation would preserve employment authorization and protection from removal for qualifying Haitian nationals, help prevent displacement of Haitian families, and reduce further disruption to communities in New York City and across the country.

‘The New York City Council resolution calls upon the United States Senate to pass S.4814 and the President to sign it into law, providing qualifying Haitian nationals with renewed protection from removal and authorization to work legally in the United States,’ she said.

The San, Diego, California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) has also urged the US Senate to pass H.R. 1689, a Discharge Petition extending TPS for more than 350,000 Haitian nationals for three years and restoring work authorization for eligible recipients.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has described as ‘callous, reckless and inhumane’ the Trump administration’s termination of TPS for Haitians and other immigrants.

Several persons detained who spent several weeks in prison on a Preventive Detention Order (PDO) issued during the state of emergency (SoE) that is due to expire later this month, are being released.

Among them is 69-year-old businesswoman, Star Sabga, whose attorney and former attorney general Faris Al-Rawi, confirmed that she has been released from detention.

‘She cried. Some of those tears were relief. Some were disbelief. Others were simply an outpouring of emotion. She saw her family members come to her and walk into her living room past two wonderful police officers,’ Al-Rawi said.

He said several legal challenges arising from the matter remain before the courts. Among them is a constitutional challenge to Section 6(2)(b) of the Interception of Communications Act, which identifies the authorities entitled to apply for the interception of communications.

‘We hold the view that that section is unconstitutional because it lacks certain safeguards,’ Al-Rawi said.

Sabga, 69, along with her niece, Genevieve and her businessman husband, Dominic Hadeed, were detained in connection with an alleged plot to murder government officials, including the Prime Minister. All three were placed under PDOs at the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca, along the ast west corridor, on June 27.

The Hadeeds were released on July 23 after Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander revoked their PDOs. Sabga remained under house arrest from July 27 until her release on Thursday this week.

Al-Rawi said it would be premature to conclude that the conspiracy allegations against his clients had been dismissed. He added that his clients are not contemplating further legal action against the State, as their ongoing matters already include claims for compensation.

On Thursday, Justice Carla Brown-Antoine gave the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) and the Office of the Attorney General until Monday to decide whether to withdraw an appeal over a judge’s decision to place Sabga on house arrest.

The judge granted the adjournment as the appeal came up for case management and hours after Alexander exercised his discretion to withdraw the PDO, effectively bringing Sabga’s detention at her Westmoorings apartment, west of here, to an end.

During the hearing, Justice Brown-Antoine questioned whether the appeal was now academic based on the PDO revocation and the expected end of the SoE next week.

The Hadeeds’ bid for interim release was initially blocked by Justice Frank Seepersad before being upheld by a panel of the Court of Appeal, which took issue with the justification put forward by Alexander for their detention on PDOs.

But another Court of Appeal panel led by Chief Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh stayed their colleagues’ findings pending the determination of a final appeal before the United Kingdom-based Privy Council, the country’s highest and final cpurt.

The PDOs against the Hadeeds were eventually revoked after the Privy Council indicated it could only hear the State’s appeal in October and in late July, High Court judge Vigel Paul agreed to place Sabga under house arrest conditions that were set by the initial Appeal Court panel for the Hadeeds. The TTPS and the AG’s Office appealed the ruling.

Meanwhile, relatives of the many people detained under PDOs have been gathering outside the Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Centre (ECRC), the Youth Training Centre and the Women’s Prison, awaiting the release of their family members.

Meantime, the main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) has warned that it will mount a direct legal challenge in court against any further attempts by the Government to extend or re-implement a SoE.

‘We will challenge any attempt to extend the state of emergency by trick,’ Al-Rawi told a news conference, creating a scenario in which the current SoE is allowed to lapse briefly before a new one is declared.

He said that any effort to suspend the SoE for ‘a day, a week, or 48 hours’ before imposing another would trigger legal action.

‘We’re just warning the Government that that will not be tolerated,’ Al-Rawi said, making reference to last month’s ruling by the Court of Appeal ruling in Belize, which found that two states of emergency imposed on Southside Belize City in 2020 were unconstitutional.

In a landmark ruling the Court of Appeal also declared that the both the emergency proclamations and the mass detentions carried out under them unconstitutional with Acting Justice of Appeal E. Andrew Marshalleck said that using SoEs to tamp down gang violence, acts merely as ‘bandages rather than cures’ while threatening the fundamental rights guaranteed by Section 3 of the Belize Constitution.

Venezuela’s acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, has arrived in Suriname on Friday for an official visit to the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country, the state-owned Suriname Communication Service (CDS) has announced.

It said that Rodriquez is visiting at the invitation of President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons and that the two leaders will hold consultations on further strengthening cooperation in areas including agriculture, fisheries, hydrocarbons, connectivity, tourism, education, and capacity building.

‘The agreements reached during this visit will guide sustainable and results-oriented cooperation that contributes to the development, resilience, and prosperity of both countries and their communities,’ CDS added.

The Trinidad and Tobago government Friday night said that the state of emergency (SoE), which is due to expire next week, has produced the desired results while insisting it is part of a raft of measures to deal with the crime situation here.

‘Let me make something absolutely clear from the outset. The state of emergency is ending because the law say that it must. It is not ending because the threat has disappeared. It is not ending because the police has finished its job and it is not ending because the criminal gangs have been given reprieve,’ Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander said in a statement to Parliament. He said that it is not the end because the government has lost its resolve.

‘The emergency powers will end, the fight against crime will continue. There will be no ease up…on the pressure that will be. There will be no retreat, no surrender, no white flags, all red.’

Alexander old legislators that the government’s position is zero tolerance and has always been a zero tolerance against the criminal activities and a relentless law pursuit to pressure those who threaten the safety and security of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

The SoE, which took effect on March 3 and has already been extended twice, is scheduled to expire on September 17 and Alexander in thanking the law-abiding citizens said ‘we want to make it abundantly clear that this government will not allow the criminal elements to roam your streets, to take possession of your homes and businesses without some sort of retaliation”.

Alexander said that the SoE was necessary because of the number of violent criminal acts being carried out by members of organised criminal gangs.

‘Law enforcement advised that the criminal gangs had escalated in their acts of violence on a scale so extensive that the result in multiple deaths and mass shootings. And that this pattern of behaviour was expected to continue.’

But he said that the National Security Council chaired by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesar ‘had no choice’ and it was immediately determined that there should be a SoE to deal with the situation.

‘This government acts because responsible governments do not sit by and watch criminals torture citizens. When the security of the nation is threatened, the state must respond. And we must respond decisively and effectively,’ Alexander said, adding ‘ the state of emergency was not symbolic’.

The former senior police officer said that the SoE was an operational instrument and that ‘it created a space for coordinating intelligence and sustainable actions against persons and network accused of driving violent crime forward’

He said throughout this period, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) conducted operations supported by active inter-agency collaboration and that the operational objectives were clear.

‘Suppress gang activities, recover illegal firemen ammunition, execute warrant, track priority offenders, and disrupt criminal networks,’ he said, resulting in 13,108 operations, 5,767 arrests.

‘As of day 191, which was yesterday, the state of emergency, the protective services had conducted 13,108 operations. The TTPS arrested 5,767 persons. A total of 702 preventative detention orders has been approved, of which 573 has been executed.’

Alexander said law enforcement recovered 318 firearms, and 6,414 rounds of ammunition had been recovered.

‘Every round of ammunition seized is one less bullet available for the criminals. Every criminal network disrupted, weakened the machinery of violence that had caused suffering in our community. That is criminal capability being dismantled.’

Alexander said as of Thursday, 240 persons held under preventative detention orders have been charged and will now face the court and that investigations are continuing into the others.

Alexander said that while there have been successes Trinidad and Tobago is moving in the right direction.

He said for the period January 1t to September 10 his year, the total serious crimes reported fell from 8,014 incidents in 2025 to 6,884 in 2026, representing a 14.1 per cent reduction. He said murders fell from 438 in 2024 to 262 in 2025 and to 252 in 2026. Wounding and shooting fell from 542 in 2024 to 402 in 2025 and 313 in 2026. Robberies fell from 1,723 in 2024 to 1,325 in 2025 and now 901 so far this year.

‘… these are not imagined. These are real statistics provided by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and they tell us something important. Pressure works, sustained law enforcement works, intelligence led policing works, disrupting gang works, taking guns and ammunition off the street works, pulling officers where they are needed works.

‘No responsible government would claim that every reduction is attributed to one single measure, but neither should anyone ignore what the evidence is telling us. During the state of emergency, law enforcement identified criminal capabilities with disruptive and principal crime indicators moving in the right direction.’

Alexander said the expiration of the state of emergency detention powers does not ease or erase evidence, nor does it close an investigation and destroy intelligence.

‘ It does not close police files and it certainly does not prevent a lawful change from being brought, a lawful charge to be brought at a later stage. The police will continue to investigate into persons and networks of interest.

‘Where admissible evidence reaches the requirement threshold, those matters will be placed before the court through the established criminal justice process. Operational details will not be disclosed in this house where disclosure could compromise an investigation,’ Alexander added.

‘ And I want those who believe that the expiration of the state of emergency means the expiration of police attending attention and understanding something very clear. They will continue to pursue persons, they will continue to work with intelligence, they will continue to make arrests, they will continue to charge persons and those who decide to confront police officers and other agencies in gun battle, well, you may ask yourself a serious question,’ Alexander said.

‘The SOE was one weapon in the state arsenal against crime. It was never the entire arsenal. This government has never presented the state of emergency as the only answer to crime. It formed part of a broader sustainable national security strategy.

‘That strategy strengthened manpower, it improved mobility and visibility, and it modernised legislation and technology. It strengthened our borders and it confronted traffickers and cyber crime personnel and it also addressed the social and behavioural conditions that place our young people at risk,’ Alexander told Parliament.