Sedition Act Prevails: Sat loss: Duke's case dismissed

[bluefete]

Updated: The Guardian has better information than the Express.

https://guardian.co.tt/news/special-bra ... ce28b356cc

Special Branch cops detain Duke
by Shaliza Hassanali1 hour ago Mon Aug 26 2019


Special Branch officers leave the Public Services Association’s headquarters on Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain, on Monday, after they conducted a search of the premises. Nicole Drayton


Pres­i­dent of the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) Wat­son Duke was de­tained and ques­tioned by the po­lice on Mon­day.

Duke was re­port­ed­ly de­tained hours af­ter Spe­cial Branch of­fi­cers con­duct­ed a search of the PSA’s Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain head­quar­ters al­though the PSA leader was not there at the time of their search.

In a re­lease is­sued on Mon­day evening, the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice con­firmed that Duke had been de­tained and that Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith had been briefed by rel­e­vant units of the TTPS “on a mat­ter in­volv­ing Mr Duke.” It added that in­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.

How­ev­er, a se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer last night con­firmed that Duke was de­tained in an on­go­ing probe they start­ed over com­ments he made a few months ago but re­fused to give fur­ther de­tails on his ut­ter­ances as the case was at a sen­si­tive stage.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that Duke com­plained of feel­ing un­well short­ly af­ter be­ing de­tained by the of­fi­cers. He was tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, treat­ed and re­leased back in­to their cus­tody. Duke’s wife and se­nior PSA ex­ec­u­tives were re­port­ed­ly at Duke’s side while he was at hos­pi­tal.

The search at Duke’s of­fice be­gan around 1 pm fol­low­ing the ex­e­cu­tion of a search war­rant by the of­fi­cers. The PSA boss was, how­ev­er, at the time at an­oth­er lo­ca­tion on union busi­ness.

When the po­lice en­tered the four-storey build­ing, there­fore, Duke was not there. PSA em­ploy­ees were re­port­ed­ly caught by sur­prise when the of­fi­cers said they were there to con­duct a search of the premis­es.

At around 4.15 pm, a uni­formed of­fi­cer emerged from the build­ing car­ry­ing what re­sem­bled a tool­box and placed it in the truck of an un­marked po­lice ve­hi­cle which was parked on the road­side. Short­ly af­ter, six plain­clothes of­fi­cers were spot­ted leav­ing the build­ing af­ter con­duct­ing their in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Calls to Duke’s cell­phone went unan­swered Mon­day evening.

Duke, who is al­so the Mi­nor­i­ty Leader of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, is not­ed for his harsh crit­i­cism against the rul­ing Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment Gov­ern­ment for their lack of gov­er­nance. He of­ten crit­i­cis­es the Dr Kei­th Row­ley-led Gov­ern­ment in live posts on so­cial me­dia plat­form Face­book.

In one of his lat­est such live feeds on Face­book last Thurs­day, Duke said he was shocked, per­turbed and up­set over re­marks made by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley that many ser­vants pub­lic ser­vants are un­pro­duc­tive.

Duke said Row­ley was turn­ing his fail­ure from man­ag­ing the pub­lic ser­vice away from him­self and plac­ing it on pub­lic ser­vants.

“It wor­ries me. It wor­ries me. It wor­ries all 80,000 pub­lic ser­vants of this coun­try and it hurts to the core,” Duke said.

In the au­dio clip, Duke al­so a called on Row­ley to “shut your stink mouth.”

Last March, the Na­tion­al In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny called on Duke to apol­o­gise af­ter he ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of at­tempt­ing to mur­der pas­sen­gers on board a wa­ter taxi which caught fire while it was in ser­vice, stat­ing peo­ple could have died.

NID­CO viewed Duke’s state­ment as defam­a­to­ry, reck­less and ma­li­cious.

In May, Duke al­so got in­to hot wa­ter with the PNM’s To­ba­go Coun­cil af­ter he post­ed a video state­ment call­ing on Chief Sec­re­tary Kelvin Charles to re­sign over the mur­ders of busi­ness­man John Mills and his wife Eu­lyn John.

The coun­cil called on Duke to apol­o­gise to the fam­i­ly of the de­ceased cou­ple, who were friends of Row­ley. The coun­cil said the fam­i­ly’s grief must nev­er be used as a ve­hi­cle up­on which po­lit­i­cal mileage may be ob­tained.










https://trinidadexpress.com/news/local/ ... d4181.html

Watson Duke in police custody...again

Leah Sorias Aug 26, 2019 Updated 1 hr ago

Police have held President of the Public Services Association Watson Duke for questioning.

This was confirmed by Assistant Commissioner of Police (crime) Jayson Forde tonight.

“We have an ongoing investigation and as such he was detained relative to that,” Forde said.

Forde said contrary to reports, the PSA’s headquarters on Abercromby Street was not searched by Police and documents seized.

Sources informed the Express that Duke was being questioned in connection with public statements he made a few months ago.

Asked whether this was true, Forde said he could not give additional information.

Up to 7pm, Duke was still being grilled by Police, in the presence of his attorney.

All calls to his cellphone went unanswered last night.

Duke is well known for his controversial statements.

In January, chaos broke out when Duke and PSA members met with the chief personnel officer over outstanding wage negotiations.

[bluefete]

I wonder what he had to say so that offended someone in high office.

[redmanjp]

he didn't have a rape charge some time ago?

[bluefete]

he didn't have a rape charge some time ago?

But "sources" said it is "in connection with public statements he made a few months ago".

That rape charge looks dead and buried unless the POPO got to work on it again.

[rspann]

......and yuh want to tell Growlers to hush he stink mouth?

[MaxPower]

Watson Duke is supposed to be someone important or something?

Steups

A Blasted nuisance to society.

[The_Honourable]

His party is poised to take the 2 tobago seats in Generals and have a lead in THA elections right after.

[Rovin]

i feel is because he tell rowdy to hush he stink mouth ....

[zoom rader]

Injun get a breather

[hydroep]

Probably an attempt to discredit him as elections coming up. Looking for them to hold some (more) of Tantie Kams crew too...

[hydroep]

Moonilal warns of arrests of religious leaders, political opponents
Yvonne Webb

After the detention of Tobago House of Assembly (THA) minority leader Watson Duke by the police for questioning, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal is warning that more arrests are to come.

“I warn you, watch for arrests of religious leaders, political opponents,” Moonilal told a packed audience at the United National Congress (UNC) Monday night forum at the Debe High School.

He said this was a sign of a totalitarian government.

“As I speak to you now, trade union leader and minority leader in the THA Watson Duke is being questioned by the police.”

Duke was reportedly questioned by the police on Monday for public statements he made some time ago.

“Today, tomorrow, he could be charged for making statements,” Moonilal said hours after his detention.

“Understand what is happening here. Persons who make statements about what is happening here, now face persecution on charges of sedition and treason and all type of things.

“This is the work of dictatorship. I warn you about that tonight.”

He said for the past four years in the Parliament, government MP’s have heaped scorn on the Opposition MP’s, pointing fingers, accusing them of corruption and telling them they will be locked up.

“For four years they criminalise us and demonise us, pointing fingers across the parliamentary floor to the UNC.

“But while they were looking across the room, they were not looking behind them,” he said in reference to one of their own MP’s former minister and deputy political leader Marlene McDonald’s arrest and charge.

He said the Prime Minister, as head of the National Security Council, claimed he did not know McDonald was going to be arrested, “but he know how much UNC people to be arrested. Watch then now for locking up opposition figures, religious leaders and trade union leaders who stand up to the dictatorship.”

Moonilal said the upcoming local and general elections, “will be the most important elections you will ever face. If the worst nightmare is to occur and Keith Rowley goes back into office, this country will go back to 1962 and before.

“They will completely destroy everything,” Moonilal said.

https://newsday.co.tt/2019/08/27/moonilal-warns-of-arrests-of-religious-leaders-political-opponents/

[zoom rader]

Probably an attempt to discredit him as elections coming up. Looking for them to hold some (more) of Tantie Kams crew too...

Yup and that is why kams and dem should leave bago alone.

[rspann]

Papa Doc Growler send the Tonton Macoutes.

[zoom rader]

Papa Doc Growler send the Tonton Macoutes.

Well injun get a breather this time .


TT sounding more like Uganda in the 1970s.

Rowlee look like Id Amin on weight loss

[Rovin]

pee en em will do whatever it takes to get back into govt ....

[teems1]

pee en em will do whatever it takes to get back into govt ....

All they have to do is legalize marijuana for recreational use.

[Rovin]

^^^i bet they holding dat as a last minute election trump card

but i also betting only d 1% will be allowed to majorly distribute it to d small fries ...

[K_J_R]

Probably an attempt to discredit him as elections coming up. Looking for them to hold some (more) of Tantie Kams crew too...

this is it.

more arrests coming soon.

[bluefete]

[MaxPower]

Stop faking Watson yuh big boola

[redmanjp]

so this is d new ting now for every prominent person who gets arrested?

[Redman]

It's a easy way to stay out of the cell.
He so sick....but wearing shades for the cameras

A heap of tootz.

What's the charge?

[ek4ever]

They have treatment for cowardice and stupidity in the hospital?

[The_Honourable]

Discharged from hospital but still being interviewed by the police.

[The_Honourable]

DPP weighs case against Duke



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.

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.”

Source: http://guardian.co.tt/news/dpp-weighs-c ... 7513efc98e

[coltspeed]

How stupid can this gov make themselves look. Take ppl into custody and uncertain that they can be charged with anything. If it's a case of having proper evidence I understand. But not $hit like this to waste ppl time and tax money.

[j.o.e]

How stupid can this gov make themselves look. Take ppl into custody and uncertain that they can be charged with anything. If it's a case of having proper evidence I understand. But not $hit like this to waste ppl time and tax money.

Separation of powers. This isn’t a Govt issue, it’s a police issue

[Gladiator]

Yeahhhh...once you believe that all is good

How stupid can this gov make themselves look. Take ppl into custody and uncertain that they can be charged with anything. If it's a case of having proper evidence I understand. But not $hit like this to waste ppl time and tax money.

Separation of powers. This isn’t a Govt issue, it’s a police issue

[Redman]

I'm in two minds on this.

Enforce all laws....

But this is really a stretch...and too easily viewed as oppressive.

[SR]

If this is the reality of what people are being charged for then that list is quite long on politicians and union leaders


Where every creed and race find and equal place


In jail