(Trinidad Express) President of the Law Association Sophia Chote, SC, says the security concerns of the Director of Public Prosecutions over a Port of Spain building assigned for its operations by the Government are valid.
Chote said yesterday she was bemused that people in high office think security concerns over the building could be overlooked. She reminded that, in the past, a State prosecutor involved in a high-profile case had been killed.
“I think the security concerns of the director for himself and his staff pertaining to that building to which they are being allocated, his concerns are valid,” Chote said while speaking on radio station i95.5 FM.
She said these were expressed and accepted by stakeholders at the highest level at meetings which she, as president of the Law Association, attended.
“I am a little bemused that all of a sudden it appears as though that some persons in high office think that these security concerns…ought to be overlooked,” she said.
It was during an interview last week that DPP Roger Gaspard, SC, spoke about the shortage of staff at the DPP’s office and of the criminal justice system collapsing should the situation remain unaddressed.
This was countered shortly thereafter by Prime Minister Keith Rowley who during a political meeting in Barataria spoke about a building with executive office space being allocated for the office of the DPP, but that it remained unoccupied.
He said the Government, for the past three years, had been paying millions of dollars in rent for the unused space.
During the radio interview, Chote said the building has been an on-going issue for more than three years.
She explained that when it was procured, on its original specification, it was accepted by former attorney general Faris Al-Rawi and his representative on many occasions, that the building, based on the recommendations of the Special Branch of the Police Service, needed to have certain security features.
“There have been commitments given by the former attorney general that they had accepted the police recommendations that this building had to be fitted out with security features as you would imagine because remember a prosecutor was murdered or killed while prosecuting a high-profile matter. So security for these prosecutors is not something we can overlook if we are to be serious about crime fighting at all in this country,” Chote said.
She added, “I was told that Cabinet had approved that these security features should have been put in place before the DPP and his officers can move to East Port of Spain and I do not believe that that has been adequately done, to the best of my knowledge.”
Chote was unable to offer an explanation for the building that was selected, which previously housed a bank.
“What I can say as a lay person is that what you require for a bank is certainly not what you would require for the office of the DPP,” she said.
Chote said Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, is still new to his office and may not be fully aware of the history of the matter or the commitment given on behalf of his ministry by his predecessor, and he would be depending on those around them to give the information.
On statements by Armour that the office of the DPP is “under-performing”, Chote said it would have been “grossly unfair” to compare the DPP with other Government institutions as the kind of operation that the DPP’s office has to run as an institution is entirely different from many of other institutions.
These prosecutors work in an environment where on a daily or a weekly basis they may and have received threats from criminal elements and there are insufficient security protocols in place for them, she said.
Chote, who started her career as a prosecutor at the office of the DPP, said she was aware of the concerns that prosecutors have and continue to have.
“When I started, we never imagined that a prosecutor could have been killed in the line of duty but we have now lived through that experience and we must learn from it,” she said.
Senior counsel Dana Seetahal, who was involved in high-profile court matters, was murdered in 2014 while driving in Woodbrook.
Chote said the Law Association holds the view that the present DPP has served this country as a public servant with integrity.
Speaking on upcoming elections at the Law Association, she said she will not be seeking a third term within the Association.
