PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Jun 2, CMC – Activist Alyssa Phillip will re-appear in a magistrate’s court here on June 12, after she was released on TT$10,000 (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents bail after she pleased not guilty to two offences related to a public protest last week.
Phillip and her mother, Camille Caresquero, who was also released on TT$10,000, had been charged with disorderly behaviour and influencing public opinion in a manner that is prejudicial to public safety under the Emergency Powers Regulation.
The Emergency Powers Regulation states: “A person who commits an offence under the Regulations is liable on summary conviction to a fine of TT$100,000 and imprisonment for five years”.
“I maintain my innocence and remain committed to conducting myself peacefully as this matter proceeds before the Court. I am grateful for the representation and support of my attorneys Ms Fayola Sandy and Ms Stacy Benjamin Roach,” Phillip said in a statement.
The two were among three people arrested last Wednesday as they staged a demonstration outside the Sacred Heart RC Church, near the office of the Director of Public Prosecution.
The protest is in response to the police involved shooting of a 31-year-old man on January 20, this year, and last Friday night, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Roger Gaspard, defended his decision to instruct the police to charge Kaia Sealy, the common law wife of Joshua Samaroo.
She has since been charged with three counts of shooting with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at the police, manslaughter with police alleging that Sealy, who was shot multiple times during the incident and left paralysed, unlawfully killed Samaroo.
Since then the police have added new charges of being in possession of a firearm; possession of ammunition; possession of a firearm with the intent to endanger life and discharging a firearm within 40 metres of a public place.
CMC/gh/or/2026