THE STATE has formally gone on record admitting that the detention and return of firearm dealer Brent Thomas from Barbados in 2022 was unlawful.
The admission was made at a hearing on July 24, of the Attorney General's appeal of a High Court judge's ruling that permanently stayed all criminal charges against the 61-year-old owner of Specialist Shooters Training Centre.
In April 2023, Rampersad ruled that Thomas's arrest in Barbados in 2022 was unlawful and the actions of the State contravened the businessman's rights. A month later, the State appealed the decision, claiming the judge erred in law. Rampersad was faulted for wrongly applying the law on the extra-territorial conduct of what took place in Barbados on October 5, 2022.
On April 7, Sunday Newsday reported the Barbados government accepted liability for Thomas' 'forcible removal' from his hotel room by its police.
On July 24, Peter Knox, KC, the lead attorney for the Attorney General, conceded the illegal arrest point before Justices of Appeal Prakash Moosai, Charmaine Pemberton and Mira Dean-Armorer at a hearing at the Waterfront Judicial Centre, Port of Spain. He has also suggested amending the judge's declaration on the forced retrieval, replacing the 'State' with that of the TT Police Service.
The judges have reserved their ruling after hearing more than five hours of submissions in the packed courtroom on the ninth floor of Tower D.
In its appeal, the Attorney General faulted other portions of the judge's findings and declarations on the procuring of six search warrants which led to Thomas's arrest on two occasions. He was released on October 2, 2022, on an order of the High Court after his first arrest in September 29. After his release, he travelled to Barbados enroute to Miami for medical treatent.
After he was handed over to TT police at the Grantley Adams International Airport and brought back to TT, Thomas was charged with possession of four grenades, two Sig Sauer rifles and a Skorpion rifle, all of which are prohibited under the Firearms Act.
Knox provided a chronology of events that led to Thomas's arrest, focusing on the evidence of the police officers who obtained the search warrants for his business place and his Maraval home.
He said the police, at all times, were acting on reasonable grounds of suspicion.
Knox admitted the process to bring Thomas back to Trinidad should have been handled by way of extradition, but he reminded, 'The important point is that the respondent was a fugitive of justice.'
Knox also said the judge's findings did not justify the staying of the charges against Thomas.
'We accept we acted unconstitutionally in his arrest but we do not accept the consequences of the judgment.
'It is not for a constitutional court to intervene like this in a criminal prosecution. Charges were laid after an investigation.' Knox also said the Constitution only vested the power to discontinue criminal charges with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
'It was wrong for the constitutional court to st
