PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Feb 10, CMC -Prisoners detained at an army barracks during the state of emergency (SoE) that ended last month, are calling on Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander to meet with them to see first-hand the conditions that they are detained.
The prisoners, who are into the second week of a hunger strike, have released a voice recording by murder accused and suspected gang leader, Rajaee Ali, and confirmed by his attorney, Criston Williams, who said he was instructed to share the message with family members because communication has been restricted.
In the recording, Ali said the detainees are being held under constant restraints and are denied regular contact with relatives and officials.
The 11 detainees have promised to keep up their hunger strike until they are transferred to other detention facilities. They said they are refusing all meals and are calling on the state to move them out of the military-based compounds, which they claim are not suitable for housing prisoners.
The men alleged that their treatment breached their constitutional protections and prison regulations. They say they have been kept without family contact for months, denied regular outdoor access, and restricted in their ability to communicate with attorneys.
Ali met with Williams on Monday, alleging that whenever the men leave their cells, they are blindfolded. Ali said that was the case even when they were issued letters of revocation last Friday for the preventive detention orders some of them had previously been issued.
“We were given the revoking order blindfolded. “Once you leave the cell, they blindfold us. On Friday (January) 30th, they blindfold us and take us out the cell. A man then identified himself as a police officer and gave his name. He read out a paper that he said was in his hand before they put it in our hands. We asked him what was next, and he said he doesn’t know.
“We just here. And since then, nothing has changed. State of emergency done, and nothing changed. Nobody getting airing out, nobody getting to talk to families…We still getting attacked and strip-searched every day,” said Ali, who has been charged with killing former independent legislator and special state counsel , Dana Seetahal, SC, on May 4, 2014.
While Ali and several others have been committed to stand trial in 2020, the case has faced significant delays.
“We are being denied our constitutional rights. People who have been convicted are getting better treatment than us. Right now, it’s only allegations against us. And people don’t understand what ‘innocent until proven guilty’ means.
“We are being punished because someone come up with allegations. And yet SoE come and done and we eh get charged. Yet they still have we here and we still being treated harshly. And even with the (gang) alliance talk and how they say gangs were trying to target public officials…all of this was made up, because where is the evidence?
“We have been here, some of us since the start of the last SoE and we never get charged…They had six months to do an investigation and nothing… And we just feel like we being punished. But we trying to understand why,” Ali said.
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