Grossly unfair and reckless!
That’s how the Law Association described Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds’ claim that “criminals have friends” in the Judiciary as “grossly unfair” and “reckless.”
In a media release issued yesterday, the association said Hinds’ statement was clearly directed at the Judiciary and, by extension, Justice Devindra Rampersad, who upheld a controversial lawsuit brought by firearm dealer Brent Thomas last week.
It said: “It would have been impossible for the listening public to exclude the possibility that the Minister was suggesting that the learned judge in the Brent Thomas case was somehow doing the bidding of the criminal element.”
“Apart from being grossly unfair, reckless statements like these undermine public confidence in the Judiciary and benefit no one,” it added.
The association noted that Hinds denied any wrongdoing and Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, claimed that he (Hinds) intended no attack on the Judiciary.
“While welcome, we do not think that this goes far enough,” it said.
“Nothing less than an outright withdrawal of the offending statement and an accompanying apology will do,” it added, as it called on Hinds to do so with “due dispatch.”