The Criminal Bar Association is calling on the Opposition Leader to apologise to Senior Counsel Russell Martineau who received this country’s highest national award, the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, yesterday.
In a media release, CBA president Israel Rajah-Khan endorsed Martineau as a worthy recipient.
“He is an exemplar to the legal profession, especially the young attorneys in the entire country,” Rajah-Khan wrote.
The CBA president said that Martineau’s recognition was “based on his merit, ability and integrity and his stellar contribution to the development of the law in Trinidad and Tobago. Indeed, he is a scholar and a gentleman.”
Rajah-Khan then pivoted and took aim at Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
“I thus take this opportunity to call upon the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar, SC, for her unnecessary scathing attack two years ago on his impeccable integrity when she referred to him as an “eat ah food, Cepep lawyer” for supporting the present AG in a no-case submission filed against him by the Law Association,” he concluded in the release.
Persad-Bissessar did not respond to messages and calls requesting a comment on the list of awardees.
This is not the first time Senior Counsel Rajah-Khan has condemned Persad-Bissessar for her comments on Martineau.
In 2022, he wrote a letter to her calling out what he described as her “baseless attack” on lawyers who have attained senior counsel status.