Trinidad’s DPP weighs sedition charges against union boss Watson Duke

By Stabroek News On In Trinidad & Tobago News |
Watson Duke
Watson Duke

(Trinidad Guardian) The Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) Roger Gas­pard was on Wednes­day evening locked in dis­cus­sions with the po­lice on whether or not sedi­tion charge/s should be laid against Pub­lic Ser­vices’ As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke.

This was re­vealed by one of Duke’s at­tor­neys, John Heath, dur­ing a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia last night. Duke is al­so rep­re­sent­ed by SC Gilbert Pe­ter­son.

 
Heath said if charge/s are to be laid on his client it would hinge on state­ments he made on No­vem­ber 16, 2018.

Re­act­ing to job lay­offs at TSTT and a state­ment by the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers Union that job cuts could al­so be ex­pect­ed at T&TEC and WASA, Duke said then: “We must be pre­pared to die, folks. You know why? This is your be­lief, this is your fam­i­ly, and I am send­ing the mes­sage clear, let Row­ley them know that the day they come for us in WASA, we are pre­pared to die and the morgue would be pick­ing up peo­ple.”

Heath said he was told at the Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion yes­ter­day, where Duke was be­ing de­tained and ques­tioned, that the po­lice were on their way to DPP’s of­fice to de­ter­mine if charges should or should not be laid against Duke.

“I was told by Sgt Lall that once charges are laid he will give me a call. I have not re­ceived a call as yet. I am still await­ing their re­sponse,” Heath said.

On Mon­day, Duke, who was de­tained and ques­tioned by Spe­cial Branch of­fi­cers, had to be hos­pi­talised at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope, af­ter falling ill.

Felt unwell: PSA president Watson Duke speaks to Joint Trade Union Movement president Ancel Roget, left, and a fellow union member while in bed at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, on Tuesday. (TRINIDAD EXPRESS)

In his dis­cus­sion with Duke yes­ter­day, Heath said his client again com­plained of feel­ing un­well.

“I am not sure if they would take him back to the hos­pi­tal. The po­lice are in the process of go­ing to the DPP to take in­struc­tions whether or not there are any pos­si­ble charges against Mr Duke.”

If charge/s are pre­ferred on the PSA head, Heath said he would try to get sta­tion bail for him.

“To say if he will get it (bail), that is an­oth­er ques­tion.”

Heath said Duke was on­ly do­ing his job as a union leader when he ad­dressed the work­ers.

“I don’t know if there is a prece­dent for a union leader in the course of mak­ing a union speech be­ing charged for sedi­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go. That is cause for con­so­la­tion.”

As an at­tor­ney, Heath held the view that T&T’s sedi­tion act was out­dat­ed.

“It may al­so run con­trary to the Con­sti­tu­tion and free­dom of speech. While it may not be an ab­solute right, in the con­text of it be­ing a union leader, giv­ing an ad­dress to mem­bers, one has to be con­cerned…es­pe­cial­ly in the cli­mate of the po­lit­i­cal sea­son.”

Heath said Duke is al­so the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly Mi­nor­i­ty Leader and a “po­lit­i­cal fig­ure.”