Retired deputy commissioner of police Mervyn Richardson was yesterday forced to defend his investigation of an alleged plot to assassinate former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and some of her Cabinet ministers in 2011. Close to a dozen suspects were detained before eventually being released without charge.
In the case before Justice Vasheist Kokaram in the Port-of-Spain High Court, Richardson was grilled by attorneys for one of the detainees, Anton “Boombay” Boney, who is suing the State for false imprisonment after he was detained for more than a week almost five years ago.
Richardson was asked about an intelligence report which detailed the plot and identified suspects.
However, he could not give the exact date he received the report, or the date the alleged plot was supposed to take place.
Boney’s lawyer, Lee Merry, asked why Richardson did not provide the report or details of the plot in his witness statement in the lawsuit.
He replied: “Thank God we acted in the way we did so T&T is a better place today.” Richardson also denied Merry’s claim that Boney was arrested to provide information on criminal activity in his community, not because he was suspected in the plot.
“We had cogent and compelling intelligence before us that something bad was going to happen in T&T and we need to act,” he said.
Boney is the only one of the detainees to take action against the State for false imprisonment and the only one not held by a detention order under that year’s State of Emergency (SoE).
The order empowered the Minister of National Security to allow extended detentions without charge for persons likely to cause disorder during the SoE.
Merry challenged Richardson’s claims that Boney and the other suspects were arrested as a preventative measure.
He noted that the alleged plot was supposed to be executed on November 24 but his client was arrested four days later.
“We still held the view that if we did not continue the investigation and take the precautions we did there was still likely to be situations that would be injurious to the citizens of T&T,” Richardson said.
He briefly suggested that he had received additional intelligence that foreign nationals from the Middle East would be travelling to T&T to participate.
Asked why the alleged plot was announced by Government before all the suspects were arrested, Richardson said he was not consulted. “I am a police officer not a politician. I was not briefed,” he said.
Richardson also admitted that he did not investigate claims by then Opposition Leader and current Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who at the time said he was in possession of a security report which stated that the plot was a hoax.
Boney, of John John, Laventille, was in court for yesterday’s hearing and sat silently among a group of police officers in the prisoners’ enclosure.
He has been on remand since being charged with conspiring to murder a man and the attempted murder of another in 2014.
Boney is also facing charges for being a gang leader. The case is expected to continue this afternoon, when attorneys for both since will give their final legal submissions.
He is also being represented by Kelston Pope.
