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Attorney General admits: SoE gun amnesty not in place - Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

THERE is no gun amnesty in place at this time.

This is because Regulation 11 of the Emergency Powers Regulations 2024 is not yet operational, as the amnesty period has not been prescribed.

The Attorney General and the Minister of National Security have said no action would be taken to activate the regulation over the next seven days.

The chamber director of the Attorney General’s Secretariat, Solange de Souza, gave this assurance on January 7 to attorney Gerald Ramdeen.

Ramdeen issued a pre-action protocol letter challenging Regulation 11, which provides immunity from prosecution for individuals surrendering firearms, ammunition, or explosives during a prescribed amnesty period.

According to the regulations: "No person who surrenders any firearm, ammunition or explosive during any period that is prescribed, and otherwise in accordance with an Order to surrender, shall be prosecuted under the Firearms Act or regulation for illegally purchasing, acquiring or possessing such firearm, ammunition or explosive prior to the time of such surrender or at that time."

The regulations, which set out the conditions under which the state of emergency (SoE) will be carried out, were gazetted after the President declared the SoE on December 30.

The SoE was invoked after the police gave  information of “imminent additional gang-related reprisal attacks, involving the use of high-calibre weapons and a resulting threat to public safety,” then-acting attorney general Stuart Young said at a media briefing.

In the December 6 pre-action letter, Ramdeen said his client was “troubled and concerned” that the effect of Regulation 11 “constitutes unconstitutional Executive overreach” as it conflicts with section 90 of the Constitution, which vests exclusive prosecutorial powers in the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

“The effect of Regulation 11 is to seek to permit the Executive to exercise powers that are properly and constitutionally vested in the DPP and the DPP alone.

“Neither the Constitution nor any written law vests in the Executive the power to grant an immunity from the commission of a criminal offence. In order to confer immunity, if this is possible at all, the legislative power of the State has to be employed and the requirements of section 54 of the Constitution have to be satisfied. This was not done in the present case.”

Ramdeen represents attorney Dayadai Harripaul.

He said granting the amnesty fell outside the executive’s jurisdiction and undermined the DPP’s independence.

“The independence of the DPP and the insulation from interference by any other arm of the State is one of the most important protections afforded to the citizens of this country against arbitrary and unlawful actions of the State by the drafters of the Constitution.

“This is especially so in a democracy that is polarised and divided by deep political views and ethnic divisions that we have inherited from our historical development as a budding democracy.”

Ramdeen also contended that Regulation 11 undermined public safe

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