Don’t grant bail to repeat offenders—Ramjattan

Dec 17, 2016 News

-says legal principles exist to keep some accused remanded

There are legal principles governing bail and Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan hopes that magistrates would not grant bail to some offenders.

Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan

The Public Security Ministry was responding yesterday to questions about the prevalence of suspects who are being released on bail, even while they are before the courts for other serious offences such as armed robbery, and even attempted murder.
Individuals like the youth who was apprehended for the robbery outside the Hotel Tower should remain on remand, Ramjattan said.
The youth, Curtis Vasconcellos, was shot to the neck and right arm in June 2015, allegedly after shooting a businessman in the arm during a robbery attempt.
He was charged with attempted murder, but was recently granted bail in the High Court. It is while he was on bail that Vasconcellos and another suspect allegedly robbed the Hotel Tower employee.
“It is very difficult…we have in the constitution what we call the presumption (of innocence). Your lawyer goes there and makes a case (that) this man is innocent, I want him to have bail, (but) those who have committed one offence, and clearly there is evidence of it, and committed again, like these two fellows in front of Hotel Tower, certainly, they should not get bail.
There are the legal principles governing bail, which would tell a magistrate not to grant bail, and I hope that the magistrates are going to not grant bail to some of these people,” Ramjattan said.
“In my view, fellows like that, the legal principles state very clearly you must not grant bail, because of the nature of the offender, he having being charged with all these offences and now being caught, literally red handed,” added Ramjattan, who has served as both prosecutor and defence counsel.
“But of course there are cases where the discretion of one magistrate is vastly different from the discretion of another. There will be errors.
It is the collision course of the rights of the accused, as against rights of the people… That is now the judgement call of a magistrate.
If the magistrate then, hearing the prosecutor pleading that this man must not go on bail and still grants bail, there is nothing that a minister should do, because we will interfere in another branch of government.”
He conceded that the presence of repeat offenders for serious crimes on the streets is presenting further challenges to the police.
“It is also making the fear in the land a little more, because people are saying that ‘the fellow get bail, he could come and attack me next morning’.”
“He could even attack the magistrate, like how they attack the land court judge, So they too must feel compelled that this fellow must go in there (jail).”