Fitzgerald Hinds to go before Privileges Committee of Parliament

Senate Vice President Lyndira Oudit on Tuesday ruled that Opposition Senator Fitzgerald Hinds be sent before the Privileges Committee of Parliament for statements made about Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Leader of Government Business Emmanuel George submitted to Oudit that on March 27 Hinds committed a contempt of Parliament.George said Hinds made reference to a newspaper report headlined "Neighbours Flee" in a manner intended to bring the Prime Minister and the government into disrepute.

"I submit that any reflection, imputation or other indignity offered on the holder of the high office of Prime Minister can be held as a contempt as it would tend to bring the Prime Minister, the Government of which she is head, and by extension the Parliament, into odium and disrepute," George stated.

Oudit agreed. "It is the ruling of this chair that the prima facie has been made and this matter is subsequently referred to the Committee of Privileges," she declared.

Last week the Prime Minister's legal team served a pre-action protocol letter on the Trinidad Express newspaper for the same article.