Cops defy court-ordered release of SOE detainees, say lawyers
Published:Saturday | December 21, 2019 | 12:26 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Three persons detained under the ongoing state of public emergency in St James are likely to spend Christmas behind bars because of police defiance of a court order for them to be released, the Cornwall Bar Association (CBA) has charged.
Attorney-at-law Lambert Johnson, president of the CBA, told The Gleaner yesterday that the organisation had received two separate reports of alleged abuse, where three detainees were taken back into custody despite their securing bail or orders for their release.
“Several members of the CBA have complained bitterly to me because the police are abusing and misusing the process of the SOE. There is one Parish Court matter where the judge made an order for the person to be released and the person has not been released, plus we have two persons who were granted bail by the High Court, and the police then said, ‘You’re going nowhere, we’re holding you under the SOE,’” said Johnson.
“The person that went to the Parish Court was ordered by the court to be released. The police still have him in custody, and while he’s been in their custody, he has been abused and he was taken to hospital for medical treatment by his attorney,” added Johnson.
These accusations follow similar reports out of Westmoreland in October, including one case where a detainee was allegedly kept in custody despite being offered bail. That individual’s attorney, Don Foote, is making a civil claim for false imprisonment.
St James, Westmoreland and Hanover are under a tri-parish SOE that was declared on April 30. It is set to end on January 27, 2020.
Approximately 1,894 persons have been detained under the SOE across the three parishes.
Johnson said the CBA will stand up against any abuse of the powers granted to the authorities under the SOE.
“It cannot be that a duly constituted court, recognised by the Constitution, grants someone bail, and then the police, in an effort to subvert the court’s authority, proceed to take them in under the SOE.
“We’re not living in a police state; we’re living in a free country where the SOE should not be abused, and we stand resolute and ready to fight it,” said Johnson.