Trinidad leader fires attorney general, security minister after witness tampering allegations
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad _ Trinidad’s leader has fired her attorney general and the national security minister over allegations they participated in witness tampering.
In a televised address late Monday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she could not determine the truth of the allegations against the two officials. But she said the accusations brought their offices “into disrepute.”
“Those office holders preside over the administration of justice, law and order and so cannot remain in those positions while these investigations into allegations are made,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar also called for the immediate resignation of the director of the police complaints authority, David West. She does not have the authority to fire him.
Detectives are investigating an alleged attempt by the fired attorney general, Anan Ramlogan, to pressure investigators into withdrawing a witness statement made in a defamation case brought against him by opposition leader Keith Rowley. Ramlogan denies the accusations.
Persad-Bissessar said National Security Minister Gary Griffiths was sacked because he never informed her about a phone call that he made to the director of the police complaints authority to find out whether the witness statement had been withdrawn.
The latest government shake-up in Persad-Bissessar’s administration occurs during an election year. General elections are due by September. But the prime minister on Monday denied any suggestion that politics played a part in her personnel decisions.
The Associated Press
