THREE convicted killers serving life sentences have challenged a decision by prison authorities to move them to a section of the Maximum Security Prison (MSP) in Arouca, where they say they are not enjoying the amenities they previously had in the “lifers’ section” of the facility.
The three –brothers Damian and Bobby Ramiah and Michael ‘Rat’ Maharaj – said they were moved to the Wayne Jackson Building at the MSP two weeks ago and are not being allowed their airing time or receiving the special diets or medication prescribed for them.
The three filed an application for judicial review and asked the court for immediate relief. They wanted to be removed from the Wayne Jackson Building and returned to the lifers’ section.
But on Thursday Justice Carol Gobin ordered that they should be aired for a minimum of an hour a day while they are detained at the Wayne Jackson building, in accordance with the prison rules.
She also ordered that Bobby Ramiah receive the special medication and the low-salt, low-fat and high-fibre diet prescribed for him for his hypertension and high cholesterol, while Maharaj should continue to receive a vegetarian diet in keeping with his religious beliefs.
The judge granted the three leave to pursue their judicial review claim for the declarations they sought that their constitutional rights were being infringed.
Another hearing comes up in October, since the State opposed the application for interim relief, on the basis that the men were already receiving airing. The judge was also told the State was contesting every aspect of the men’s affidavits and asked for an opportunity to file responses.
In making her order for them to receive the minimum one-hour airing, the judge said the State would suffer no prejudice.
All three were convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Thackoor Boodram, brother of notorious drug lord Nankisoon Boodram, also known as Dole Chadee. They were sentenced to death and were incarcerated at the condemned section of the Port of Spain prison until 2006, when their sentences were commuted to life in prison.
They were then transferred to the “lifers’division” at the MSP, where they say they were kept in a single cell which had its own toilet, shower, face basin and constant running water, and they had a 12-hour airing period when they could walk freely around the division and the courtyard.
They also said they had access to a television and radio and could use the wall phones. The three said since the covid19 pandemic, the lifers’ division was sanitised twice daily and the division was “much cleaner” than where they are now.
They also had access to medication and their special diets.
Each of them said since they were moved from the lifers’ division to the Wayne Jackson Building on July 24, they have had to share a ten-by-15 foot cell with four other prisoners, and claimed they were not getting their airing.
The hardest part of the move, they said, was moving from a 12-hour period of airing to none. They complained the only time they are allowed to
