Sitting of Emergency Powers Review Tribunal stalls
THE first sitting of the Emergency Powers Review Tribunal adjourned yesterday without hearing the cases of four persons seeking release following their detention last month during the limited state of public emergency in Kingston and St Andrew.
Members of the tribunal could not be reached yesterday, but according to a staff member at the offices of Nancy Anderson — an attorney who is one of the three members of the tribunal — the hearing was adjourned to Wednesday and Thursday this week.
He said the hearing, which is being held at 2D Camp Road in Kingston, was adjourned because lawyers for the security ministry were not ready to proceed.
At the same time, a female security officer yesterday turned back our reporter who had gone to cover the proceedings, saying the hearing was closed to the media.
The tribunal was set up to hear objections from persons who have been detained since the State of Emergency was declared by Prime Minister Bruce Golding on May 23 in response to the mayhem being spread by gunmen loyal to alleged drug lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.
Criminals, on the same day the emergency measures were announced, burnt two police stations and barricaded the west Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens in an effort to prevent the security forces from apprehending Coke, who later slipped out of the area and was only captured last week Tuesday along the Mandela Highway while being driven by Rev Al Miller, who said he was taking him to the US Embassy in Kingston.
Coke was last Thursday extradited to the United States where he will face gun and drug trafficking charges.
Apart from Anderson, the other members of the tribunal are attorney Pamela Benka-Coker, the chairman, and retired Court of Appeal judge Justice Henderson Downer.
Some 80, persons who were among the hundreds held, during the state of emergency which was limited to Kingston and St Andrew before being extended to St Catherine last week, are reportedly being held by the security forces. They include relatives and associates of Coke’s.
Meanwhile, the Jamaican Bar Association has raised concerns over the expansion the state of emergency to the parish of St Catherine and its extension in Kingston and St Andrew for a further 30 days.
“We share the concerns that have led to this further extension. However, we note that a state of emergency is not a crime-fighting tool but is designed to restore order when there is civil disturbance or emergency,” said a release for the association’s president, Jacqueline Samuels-Brown.
The association also noted that that the review tribunal was named after the declaration of the state of emergency, which it called a belated measure.