(Trinidad Guardian) Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal has expressed concern that privileged documents from her office have fallen into the hands of a third party. And Seetahal is warning that the documents must not be misquoted. At a press conference held yesterday by the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM), Kirt Waithe of FIXIN’ T&T distributed documents to members of the media which carried the letterhead of Seetahal’s law firm, El Dorado Chambers, at 120A St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain.
The documents made reference to a police matter which fell under the Anti-Gang Act. When told that the documents had been given to the media at the press conference, Seetahal said she did not know how a third party could have gotten possession of the documents. She maintained, however, that any evidence she would have given in reference to the Anti-Gang Act would have been after charges were laid.
Seetahal also warned that it was improper for the media to quote directly from the documents. “Whoever got the material, that is no business of theirs, because they are privileged information… that is not for a third party,” she said. “Those documents must not be misquoted and I had nothing to do with anything before charges were laid…I would have given advice after charges were laid.”
The issue of the Anti-Gang Act was raised during the press conference by Waithe, who called for answers regarding the arrests of people during last year’s state of emergency. “We would need to know where the instructions during the state of emergency last year came from,” Waithe said.
