Richard Lord

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan said the Gov­ern­ment agreed to re­peal the con­tro­ver­sial Sec­tion 34 of the Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice (In­dictable Pro­ceed­ings) Act 2011 be­cause of con­cerns ex­pressed by the pop­u­la­tion. Ram­lo­gan made a four-minute state­ment at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann's, yes­ter­day evening af­ter a spe­cial Cab­i­net meet­ing. He said it was Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar who de­cid­ed yes­ter­day morn­ing that the law should be re­pealed, and Cab­i­net agreed.

He re­peat­ed his state­ment from ear­li­er yes­ter­day in San Fer­nan­do that the Gov­ern­ment had de­cid­ed "to err on the side of cau­tion and to re­peal this sec­tion in its en­tire­ty. ?"We do so," he said, "to avoid any doubt what­so­ev­er as to the true in­ten­tion and pur­pose of the leg­is­la­tion, which was al­ways in­tend­ed at fix­ing the log­jam that ex­ists in the mag­is­tra­cy." He said the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment re­mained com­mit­ted to the pros­e­cu­tion of all crimes.

Ram­lo­gan said the Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness, Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal had told Op­po­si­tion Whip Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald of the Gov­ern­ment's de­ci­sion to re­con­vene Par­lia­ment ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing. Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley lat­er called for Par­lia­ment to be re­called to dis­cuss the mat­ter.