The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder said he has been asked by Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis to look at regional gang legislation to determine if a stand alone new law should be enacted or if changes should be made to the Penal Code.

The revelation comes as the country is tackling a spate of crime, particularly a rise of homicides some of which are said to be gang-related. Mr Davis recently said one the of things he has been looking at is the possibility of enacting an anti-gang bill.

Mr Davis pointed to countries within the region that have such an initiative and added that he was looking at it to make a recommendation to the commissioner of police and the attorney general to see how it would work.

On the sidelines of an event on Friday, Mr Pinder said: “The prime minister has asked me to look at regional gang legislation in the Caribbean,” Mr Pinder said. “Primarily in Jamaica and Trinidad (which have) stand alone (laws) that we’re looking at.

“In 2014, there was an amendment to the Penal Code that embedded certain offences within the Penal Code from membership and being a part of a gang, but also committing crimes while being a part of a gang and organised criminal groups and that’s on the books.

“I’ve actually spoken to the Department of Public Prosecutions about framing up and how we can prosecute because the penalties are severe and actually (a person) only has to be a member of a gang and demonstrate that in the court of law under our Penal Code now. So we’re working in parallel routes. We wanna see how we can bring prosecutions under the current law under the Penal Code while reviewing regional legislation and benchmarking it to see if we’re gonna improve our laws and whether it makes sense to have a standalone gang law legislation or whether it makes sense to expand further within the Penal Code.”

Asked if there were going to be amendments in the current gang laws, Mr Pinder replied: “We are making that determination. I think you will see amendments. We’re making the determination whether those amendments should be to the existing provisions of the Penal Code or if it justifies a standalone piece of legislation.”

On November 11, 2015, five men who denied being members of a gang were arraigned in Magistrate’s Court and faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the criminal offence.

However, the amended 2014 act was not officially gazetted until November 12, 2015, according to an Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs document obtained by The Tribune.

Prosecutors later dropped the charges against the men after Justice Bernard Turner, on December 10, 2015, revealed that nothing had been placed before the courts as to when the law change was to come into force. He called this a “fatal flaw”. He made the revelation when he decided to free one of the men.