Senior Reporter
jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt
Canadian vlogger Christopher “Chris Must List” Hughes was granted $100,000 bail when he appeared before Master Margaret Sookraj-Goswami yesterday.
However, the 45-year-old father of three from Ontario, Canada, who was represented by Anand Ramlogan, SC, was taken to the Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Centre in Santa Rosa after the hearing. While Hughes was given the option to access his freedom with cash of $10,000, it was unclear if he was able to post bail up to late last evening. If this was not done, it meant that the Canadian national would have spent the night in prison.
As part of his bail, Hughes, who is charged with publishing a seditious publication on May 29, will have his passport surrendered to the court and remain in the country.
Hughes was first ordered into the care of Darnell Saldenha but the complainant found that he had three drug-related matters in the past, which Saldenha said all ended with a reprimand and discharge. In the end, Hughes’ former attorney Criston Williams volunteered for him to stay at his house.
Upon his release, he will spend a few days at Williams’ Diego Martin home until the matter is recalled on Thursday.
Ramlogan told Sookraj-Goswami that he would be taking the State to court for a breach of his client’s constitutional rights, which he said may invalidate the charge.
He made the comment during his bail application and the breach of his client’s rights afforded to him under the country’s laws. He argued that the State, if it denied his client bail, may have placed his life in danger following a media report that Hughes was taken on a ride with police to identify gangs and gang spots. He said while the story was false, the gangsters in the prison may not have seen the correction published afterwards and labelled Hughes as a police informant.
He chastised the State for only requesting his international record from Interpol last Saturday, four days after he was arrested.
State attorney Danielle Thompson said the local Interpol officers only made a request to the Canadian Interpol yesterday and she could not say when a report on his criminal record will be available.
Ramlogan submitted that Hughes only had one matter, which was driving under the influence of alcohol. He stressed his client was not a flight risk and had the means to remain in the country pending the outcome of his matter.
Thompson asked for a short adjournment to Thursday to get instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions on how to proceed.
Hughes’ matter can proceed either summarily, which carries a lighter penalty of a $3,000 fine or two years imprisonment, or indictably, which carries a $20,000 fine or five years in jail.
Wearing a black T-shirt with Trinidad printed on it, Hughes shook his head in agreement as Ramlogan said the charge was a case of “putting a plaster on a festering societal sore”. Ramlogan submitted that rather than arresting the supposed gangsters featured in Hughes’ videos, the State arrested the messenger and was throwing the baby out with the bath water.