Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi says his office will be laying new legislation in Parliament soon to deal with foreign terrorist fighters and propose amendments to the current anti-terrorism legislation.
Al-Rawi made the announcement while responding to an editorial in the Barbados Nation which has called on the People’s National Movement (PNM) Government to get its act together to deal with crime. Speaking at his constituency’s kite flying competition at Skinner Park, San Fernando, Al-Rawi said he was not offended by the editorial, as it describes the facts.
The editorial, published in the Barbadian daily newspaper on March 30, warned its citizens about crime and criminal hotspots in T&T. It also noted that T&T nationals have been leaving to join terrorist groups in the Middle East and Africa.
“T&T is not in a unique position. St Lucia, Barbados, a number of Caricom countries have been battling a serious scourge of crime. That does not excuse it, the fact that there is something going on elsewhere,” Al-Rawi said.
“We can say that the management of crime and criminality is, perhaps, alongside with housing and job creation and employment, number one paramount issues; they rank almost equal in today’s world. The economy is equally important.”
He added, “The editorial in the Nation, which I have had a chance to review, certainly is not a very flattering one but it describes the facts, it describes how others look at our country.”
Al-Rawi said this perception by others is one reason the Government is moving swiftly to centralise intelligence in the fight against crime.
“It is for this very reason that we have taken these very urgent steps in piloting the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) amendments to centralise intelligence. It is for this reason that we have taken a surge on and a direct drive into the criminal justice system and into the prison system. These are ventures led out of the AG’s office in coordination with the Ministry of National Security.”
He announced the introduction of new legislation to tackle the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters.
“The Nation also noted the introduction of foreign terrorist fighters, a phenomenon which many people have been raising. I would announce today that the Office of the AG will be laying legislation in Parliament very shortly. We prepared it already, to deal with the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters and certain amendments to the Anti-Terrorism legislation.”
However, Al-Rawi said, agencies could not work well if they were isolated and did not share information. “But all of this starts and stops with centralising your intelligence factors,” he said.
“The fact is you cannot expect the agencies to work well if they continue to be siloed and this is why we have taken this very purposeful investigation first and then taken it to the legislation that is now before the Parliament and at the same time operationalising it.”
He boasted of a high detection rate in recent cases, saying, “You would notice that some of the very heinous crimes that have been committed recently have been followed by apprehensions of suspects and followed up with investigations.
“Even most recently dealing with the unfortunate event of a potential kidnapping that the country has been looking at. So what you are seeing is a closing of the gap between detection and certainly at least the securing of someone accused of the crime and the police follow-through.”