DPP not opposed to amnesty for minor crimes

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is not opposed to an amnesty for cases involving minor offences over five years old. However Roger Gaspard wants each case to be considered separately. 

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar talked about an possible amnesty for certain crimes during the debate in Parliament to extend the Sate of Emergency.

She said the Office of the DPP would develop the plan and the DPP would retain and exercise his independent constitutional discretion in this regard.

Gaspard told the Express Attorney General Anand Ramlogan broached the subject with him. "I told the AG that it has to be done on a case by case basis and we could not adopt a broad brush approach," Gaspard said.

However he told the paper he is not formulating such a policy because it suggests a broad brush approach. 

"I told the AG I couldn't do that," Gaspard said. 

He gave examples to illustrate his position. "If you have two instances of dangerous driving. One instance is where you have a man bounce into your bumper because he was not paying attention. 

"There is another instance of dangerous driving where a man knocks down a child in the vicinity of a school, having crossed a pedestrian crossing. Both are instances of dangerous driving and even if both matters are the same age, one is certainly more egregious than the other.

"To say that all matters five years or more we would not be proceeding with, then you will be doing an injustice in the case where the guy would have knocked down a schoolchild in the vicinity of the school."

Gaspard told the paper his department will discuss the matter to determine what form such a policy might take.

Ramlogan is on record as saying that the policy will not be a blanket one but will depend on the circumstances of the case.