PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Jul 28, CMC – Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar Monday defended the decision of her three-month old coalition government to institute a state of emergency (SoE) saying it is needed to deal with a crime syndicate that has targetted senior members of the judiciary and the government.
Parliament, which has been on recess , is meeting in an extra-ordinary sitting to debate a three month extension of the SoE that was first implemented on July 18. The extension being sought is expected to be granted given the government’s overwhelming majority in the 41-member Parliament.
“We resorted to this state of emergency not just as an attack on crime, we called the state of emergency…and I take full responsibility as the prime minister of this country, I advised the attorney general…to do the legalese necessary and send it to her Excellency the President (Christine Kangaloo) to have the proclamation signed”.
She said that the proclamation took effect as of midnight on July 17, and the police had to extract people from the Maximum Security prison and put into another location “where they could be on lockdown as it were.
(Details in Politics section)
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