An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

As the State of Emer­gency (SoE) en­tered its sec­ond week yes­ter­day with the con­tin­ued de­tain­ment of sev­er­al high-risk in­mates at Teteron Bar­racks, Ch­aguara­mas, one of them yes­ter­day scored a small vic­to­ry over the con­di­tions in which he is be­ing held.

Dur­ing a vir­tu­al hear­ing be­fore Jus­tice Maris­sa Robert­son, at­tor­ney Keron Ramkhal­wan, who rep­re­sents mur­der ac­cused Ra­jaae Ali, was or­dered to file af­fi­davits on his be­half by Ju­ly 31.

Yes­ter­day’s hear­ing came af­ter Ali raised yet an­oth­er chal­lenge over his trans­fer from the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison (MSP) to the mil­i­tary base on Ju­ly 18, as well as the con­tin­ued de­nial of ac­cess to his le­gal team.

Anand Ram­lo­gan SC ap­peared on be­half of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, while Ian Ben­jamin, SC, ap­peared for the act­ing Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er.

The re­spon­dents were in­struct­ed to file af­fi­davits in re­sponse to Ali’s chal­lenge by Au­gust 14, with Ali be­ing giv­en un­til Au­gust 18 to re­spond, and the counter-fil­ing to be com­plet­ed by the re­spon­dents by Sep­tem­ber 3.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia min­utes af­ter the three-hour-long hear­ing con­clud­ed, Ramkhal­wan hailed an agree­ment by the re­spon­dents to dis­cuss the con­di­tions un­der which Ali was be­ing held “as progress.”

While Ali will re­main at the army base, his at­tor­ney said, “The re­spon­dents have agreed to have dis­cus­sions con­cern­ing the con­di­tions that Mr Ali is cur­rent­ly un­der, with the State agree­ing to dis­cuss the is­sues sur­round­ing his cloth­ing, ac­cess to toi­letries, ac­cess for him to or­der food at his own ex­pense, air­ing, and ac­cess to his at­tor­neys and a Jus­tice of the Peace.”

Asked how soon these dis­cus­sions will be tak­ing place, Ramkhal­wan said, “In due course.”

Ramkhal­wan yes­ter­day for­ward­ed cor­re­spon­dence from Ram­lo­gan and Ben­jamin, in an ur­gent move to ad­dress his client’s con­cerns in the short­est time pos­si­ble.

Ramkhal­wan, of Ju­ris X Cham­bers, ini­ti­at­ed fresh le­gal pro­ceed­ings on Ali’s be­half last Fri­day.

It came al­most a week af­ter Ali filed a habeas cor­pus over his trans­fer from the MSP to the Teteron Bar­racks.

Dur­ing an emer­gency hear­ing on Ju­ly 25, Ali’s claims over al­leged breach­es of his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were sound­ly re­ject­ed by Jus­tice Frank Seep­er­sad.

At the time, Jus­tice Seep­er­sad stat­ed that the rights of one man could not trump the rights of the na­tion as a whole, es­pe­cial­ly less than 24 hours af­ter the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty mea­sure took ef­fect.

The SoE, which was pro­claimed by Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo on the ad­vice of Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, took ef­fect on Ju­ly 18 – and saw one of the first moves be­ing the se­cret trans­fer of sev­er­al high-pro­file in­mates from the MSP to Teteron.

Ali’s lawyers threat­ened to take le­gal ac­tion to com­pel the State to al­low them ac­cess to him, as they com­plained that ef­forts were stymied and they have not been able to meet with him, al­though they were promised a link last week so vir­tu­al dis­cus­sions could be had. But this nev­er ma­te­ri­alised.

At­tor­ney An­war Ho­sein is al­so rep­re­sent­ing Ali.