JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Ac­tivist Alyssa Phillip and her moth­er Camille Cares­quero plead­ed not guilty to two of­fences yes­ter­day af­ter she ap­peared be­fore Mag­is­trate In­di­ra Misir-Go­sine.

The moth­er and daugh­ter were charged with dis­or­der­ly be­hav­iour and in­flu­enc­ing pub­lic opin­ion in a man­ner that is prej­u­di­cial to pub­lic safe­ty un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tion and face a to­tal of $100,200 and five years and two months in prison.

Ac­cord­ing to the Sum­ma­ry Of­fences Act: “Any per­son who, in any street or oth­er pub­lic place, whether a build­ing or not, is drunk and dis­or­der­ly, or who in any street or pub­lic place, is drunk while in charge of any ve­hi­cle or cat­tle, or is guilty of any ri­otous, in­de­cent, or dis­or­der­ly be­hav­iour, or of in­sult­ing, ob­struct­ing, or an­noy­ing any pas­sen­ger there­in, or who, in any Gov­ern­ment Of­fice, Sum­ma­ry Court, or Po­lice Sta­tion, or in any place of pub­lic en­ter­tain­ment, is guilty of ri­otous, in­de­cent or dis­or­der­ly be­hav­iour, is li­able to a fine of two hun­dred dol­lars or to im­pris­on­ment for two months.”

The Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tion states: “A per­son who com­mits an of­fence un­der the Reg­u­la­tions is li­able on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion to a fine of $100,000 and im­pris­on­ment for five years.”

In a What­sApp re­sponse to Guardian Me­dia, Phillip, af­ter her court ap­pear­ance, thanked her at­tor­neys.

“I main­tain my in­no­cence and re­main com­mit­ted to con­duct­ing my­self peace­ful­ly as this mat­ter pro­ceeds be­fore the Court. I am grate­ful for the rep­re­sen­ta­tion and sup­port of my at­tor­neys Ms Fay­ola Sandy and Ms Sta­cy Ben­jamin Roach.”

Phillip and her moth­er were ar­rest­ed as they staged a demon­stra­tion out­side the Sa­cred Heart RC Church, walk­ing dis­tance away from the DPP’s of­fice on Rich­mond Street, Port-of-Spain, last week.

Phillip’s ar­rest came af­ter ACP North-West Sean Hen­ry warned her and oth­er pro­test­ers to stop chant­i­ng. Be­fore the protest be­gan, Ja­son De Sil­va, a so­cial me­dia per­son­al­i­ty, was al­so ar­rest­ed.

Cares­quero was charged with the same of­fences as her daugh­ter. Up to press time, Guardian Me­dia was un­able to ver­i­fy what charges were laid against De Sil­va.

Phillip and her moth­er were re­leased on $10,000 bail each and will reap­pear in court on June 12.