ST JOHN’S, Antigua, Aug 13, CMC – Prime Minister Gaston Browne has written to the Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC), requesting the establishment of an independent committee to review firearm sentencing, repeat offending and the wider criminal justice system in Antigua and Barbuda.
The move follows Browne’s recent public criticism of judges over what he described as lenient sentences, including his threat to deport a judge if he did not “follow the lead of Parliament to give longer sentences”.
In his August 13 letter to Chief Justice Margaret Price Findlay, Browne said the proposal for the committee followed a recent meeting of the National Security Council and senior security and law-enforcement officials, which raised matters of “grave and urgent national concern”.
He is proposing that the committee examine sentencing outcomes for firearm and other serious violent offences, repeat offending and the operation of the broader criminal justice system.
(Details in Full News section)
CMC/2026