An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

At­tor­neys rep­re­sent­ing mur­der ac­cused Ra­jaee Ali have giv­en Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro and Act­ing Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er Car­los Cor­raspe un­til 4 pm to­day to grant them ac­cess to their client—or face a con­sti­tu­tion­al mo­tion to com­pel com­pli­ance.

In a let­ter dat­ed Ju­ly 20 and ad­dressed to Gue­var­ro, at­tor­ney Keron Ramkhal­wan, act­ing on Ali’s be­half, stat­ed that his client had been re­moved from the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison (MSP) and tak­en to an undis­closed lo­ca­tion to fa­cil­i­tate an in­quiry by the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

Ramkhal­wan not­ed that de­spite sev­er­al at­tempts by Ali’s le­gal team to meet with him last Fri­day and Sat­ur­day, all re­quests were de­nied.

“We here­by make a fi­nal de­mand for ac­cess to the in­tend­ed ap­pli­cant to be grant­ed on or be­fore Ju­ly 21, 2025, at 4 pm, fail­ing which we are in­struct­ed to ini­ti­ate pro­ceed­ings by way of a con­sti­tu­tion­al mo­tion seek­ing, in­ter alia, in­ter­im re­lief di­rect­ing that the in­tend­ed ap­pli­cant be grant­ed im­me­di­ate ac­cess to his at­tor­neys-at-law,” Ramkhal­wan wrote.

The le­gal team is al­so seek­ing a for­mal un­der­tak­ing from the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice that “no mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice will con­duct any in­ter­view or at­tempt to elic­it any state­ment from the in­tend­ed ap­pli­cant pri­or to his hav­ing had ac­cess to le­gal coun­sel.”

In sim­i­lar cor­re­spon­dence to Act­ing Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er Cor­raspe, Ramkhal­wan re­quest­ed ur­gent clar­i­fi­ca­tion on sev­er­al is­sues:

Whether Ali was in fact re­moved from the MSP, and by whose au­thor­i­ty

The rea­son for his re­moval and cur­rent lo­ca­tion

Whether an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­volv­ing Ali is on­go­ing

The na­ture and de­tails of any al­le­ga­tions

Whether he has been in­ter­viewed or is sched­uled to be in­ter­viewed

Whether he is be­ing held in soli­tary con­fine­ment, and if so, on what grounds

Ramkhal­wan stressed that Ali must be “ad­vised of his rights and sit­u­a­tion im­me­di­ate­ly,” and that his at­tor­neys “must be grant­ed prompt ac­cess to en­sure his well-be­ing and to con­firm that he is not be­ing sub­ject­ed to any form of pres­sure, co­er­cion, or ill-treat­ment.”

He fur­ther stat­ed that as Ali’s le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tives, they must be al­lowed to ver­i­fy that his health is not com­pro­mised and that he is not be­ing held un­der con­di­tions amount­ing to duress, in­clud­ing un­law­ful soli­tary con­fine­ment.