Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Cana­di­an vlog­ger Christo­pher Chris Must List Hugh­es has been grant­ed per­mis­sion to leave the coun­try and re­turn be­fore his re-ap­pear­ance in court next week.

Mas­ter Mar­garet Sookraj-Goswa­mi ac­ced­ed to the re­quest of Hugh­es’ at­tor­ney Pamela El­der SC who said the lengthy de­lays in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem were dis­ad­van­ta­geous to her client and for­eign­ers ac­cused of crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties in gen­er­al.

Sookraj-Goswa­mi agreed to re­turn Hugh­es’ pass­port and re­move any re­port­ing con­di­tions at­tached to his $100,000 bail. She or­dered that Hugh­es re­turn on June 12 for his mat­ter the day af­ter and he re-lodges his pass­port with the court.

El­der said she rep­re­sent­ed for­eign­ers in the Pi­ar­co Air­port in­quiry who were al­lowed to come and go and to have Hugh­es re­main in the coun­try on the “milk of hu­man kind­ness” ex­tend­ed by his for­mer at­tor­ney Criston Williams was not a com­fort­able po­si­tion.

She said the Pi­ar­co mat­ter in­volved mil­lions of dol­lars as com­pared to the mat­ter with Hugh­es, who faces a $3,000 fine or two years im­pris­on­ment.

Hugh­es, 45, al­so plead­ed not guilty to pub­lish­ing a sedi­tious doc­u­ment.

When the mat­ter was first called on Mon­day, state at­tor­ney Danielle Thomp­son said she was await­ing in­struc­tions from the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions on how to pro­ceed.

El­der said af­ter dis­cussing the mat­ter with DPP Roger Gas­pard, the state opt­ed to pro­ceed with a sum­ma­ry charge, which car­ries a lighter penal­ty.

Hugh­es, who was wear­ing a t-shirt with the word “free­dom is a must”, wants to at­tend to his fam­i­ly be­fore re­turn­ing to face the courts in this coun­try.