- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 24/Aug 08:18

Curious criminal confessions

UNDER a state of emergency, the Gazette publication of notices announcing and justifying the arrest of individuals under special powers – known as detention orders – is normally a routine affair. Not so the spate of orders, brimming with alarming details and gangster confessions, issued by Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander, published on August 19. They constitute an unprecedented widening of the scope of what the public can expect from these orders and significantly raise the stakes for all concerned. Breathtaking is the expansiveness of Mr Alexander’s notices. A good example is the one issued in relation to a Valencia gang lord. Legal Notice No 287 states the individual “claims to have already killed 30 people and intends to kill more upon his release. He also admits to planning to kill members of the protective services.” The document further details: “He has admitted to arming gang members with firearms and giving them instructions… to engage in acts of kidnapping against the business community and to kill state officials, including members of the police, prison service, and the Judiciary.” Additionally supplied are connections with separate crimes and criminals – all citing intelligence supplied by “corroborated confidential informants.” One might take this kind of information with a grain of salt. The evidence threshold that applies is not as high as elsewhere. Indeed, if challenged at the review tribunal, neither the rules of evidence nor the rules of practice and procedure of a court of law can be invoked. The poor record of detention orders being converted into criminal charges bears this out once emergencies are over. At the end of the last emergency, only 14 out of 50 detainees were charged. And while the orders are chock-full of detail, the conditions under which admissions might have been got remain vague. The circumstances in which police confessions are obtained in this country have historically been questionable, to put it mildly. Transparency, that bedrock of good governance, is a double-edged sword. Should these detainees be set free without charge, the credibility of the state is undermined. It is only natural for people to ask: If so much is known about these culprits, through confession or otherwise, why have they not been prosecuted? The orders bring police competence into focus and elevate expectations. Notwithstanding the possibility of tribunal appeals, they also pose risks to the reputations of the individuals named. Some might successfully debunk any false claims against them at those in-camera tribunal proceedings. But by then, it is already too late; the notice would have long been published. All of this suggests that these orders, while providing the public with an important supplement into our understanding of criminality and a strong justification for the emergency, should be approached with greater caution. The post Curious criminal confessions appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.