PM Mottley rejects claim that Trinidadian had been “kidnapped” in Barbados

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has described as a “scurrilous lie and defamatory in the extreme,”  the statement made by her Trinidad and Tobago counterpart, Kamla Persad-Bissessar regarding the “kidnapping” of a Trinidad and Tobago  national in Barbados in 2022.

Persad-Bissessar, addressing the opening of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) summit in St Kitts on Tuesday, said that “in October 2022, the then-sitting Trinidad and Tobago government coordinated the kidnapping of a Trinidad citizen from another CARICOM state.

“He was visiting another CARICOM state, and he was kidnapped. Our Supreme Court has ruled that he was kidnapped. He was placed in handcuffs, transported to the airport, and then back to Trinidad. I think an RSS (Regional Security System) plane was used to transport him. He was kidnapped,” Persad-Bissessar told the audience.

But Mottley speaking to the state-owned CBC TV, flatly rejected the characterisation of the incident as a kidnapping.

“To describe it as a kidnapping is a most unfortunate term because arrest warrants were presented by the Trinidad police to the Barbados police. As to what happened, we don’t know because we don’t get involved in operational matters.

“So, as it transpired, we, in fact, knew nothing about it. It is only when this matter became a public issue that we then had to launch an investigation into what transpired and it was clear that the Trinidad and Tobago police, as has been the practice for decades in this region, would have supplied an arrest warrant which the Barbados police would have acted upon.

“But to describe it as kidnapping or to suggest that any member of Cabinet or any member of the permanent secretary class or Government of Barbados is involved in kidnapping is a scurrilous lie and defamatory in the extreme. We all know what transpired and it is regrettable that it happened,” Mottley said.

Mottley said the longstanding informal practice of executing arrest warrants between Caribbean states underscored the need for legislative reform.

“We understood at the time and we said, our Attorney General said at the time, that the formal process of extradition, which we do extra-regionally with other countries, has not and was not practiced in the region among ourselves by any country in the region. And therefore, to that extent, we acknowledge that we need to be able to change how we operate,” Mottley said.

“That is why the CARICOM arrest warrant is being pursued. That is why legislation has to be passed in every CARCOM country to be able to facilitate that CARICOM arrest warrant. We also have, for example, as I said, the ministerial statements to Parliament from both the former attorney general in 2023 and the former attorney general of Trinidad and Tobago,”  she added.

The “kidnapping” incident occurred in 2022 arrest of Brent Thomas at a hotel in Barbados and his return to Trinidad, although the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) did not initiate formal extradition proceedings.

A High Court judge later ruled the act an “unlawful abduction,” prompting an apology from the Trinidad and Tobago government, with both countries accepting liability for constitutional breaches.

The CARICOM Arrest Warrant Treaty came into force at the regional level in 2018 after sufficient ratifications. However, it only becomes legally enforceable within a member state once domestic legislation is passed.

Guyana, Saint Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda have enacted local laws to operationalise the system. Trinidad and Tobago has ratified the treaty but has not yet passed the required domestic legislation.

The Trinidad Guardian newspaper reported Friday that when contacted for comment Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar did not take offence to Mottley’s statement, saying she “simply explained her position from her government’s side in a clear and cogent manner.

“She (Mottley) repeated what her former AG Dale Marshall said in their Parliament in 2023 regarding the Brent Thomas case. I don’t see anything wrong with that,” Persad-Bissessar said.

(CMC)