Sandy tells Parliament assassination plot was real

File photo - PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar with National Security Minister John Sandy

National Security Minister John Sandy told Parliament Friday the plot to assassinate the Prime Minister was real.

He explained that the only reason the 16 persons detained in connection with the plot was released was because the intelligence gathered could not be converted to evidence.

Sandy said on November 18 Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs presented official classified information that that there was a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister and three cabinet Ministers: Roodal Moonilal, Chandresh Sharma and Anand Ramlogan.

He stated: "As a consequence, certain persons named in the report and other associates were arrested and detained by police."

The detainees included: Selwyn Robocop Alexis, David Buffy Millard, Khalil Karamath and Ashmeed Choate. The authorities released all 16 suspects on Monday night as the state of emergency ended.

Sandy compared the situation from last month with what happened in 1990, when there was no hard evidence other than intelligence about the planned coup. He said if the law enforcement personnel had paid attention to intelligence the attempted coup would have been avoided.

The minister also defended the state of emergency, which was declared on August 21, saying the decision to declare the emergency was taken based on the advice of intelligence agencies. 

"Following a number of homicides in the wake of a drug bust, intelligence agencies advised on planned mass killings in which several innocent citizens would have been killed and had happened days earlier and referred to as planned random killings," Sandy told legislators.

Sandy said security personnel arrested 8,144 people during the SoE and called the exercise a "resounding success" because it disrupted the drug trade and drastically reduced the homicide figure.

"The State of Emergency also saved the lives of some of our would-be killers and they must understand that. Our intervention saved their lives and they are still with us today," he said.