Chris Hughes: Government trampling on my liberty

CHRISTOPHER “Chris Must List” Hughes and his attorneys have claimed that the government, through a swathe of accusations and charges, is tarnishing his name and infringing on his freedoms.

Hughes and his attorneys took this position while speaking to Newsday on September 10, hours after completing his order of supervision, a requirement of his release from the Immigration Detention Centre which restricts him from leaving the country without permission from the Immigration Division.

“It is a flagrant breach of one’s freedoms and liberties. Nowhere else in the world would this happen. In no other democracy can this happen,” said attorney Vashisht Seepersad at his office at Fortis Chambers, Cornelio Street, Woodbrook.

Hughes, 46, returned to Trinidad on August 18, as part of his reporting requirements as he faced a sedition charge. Since then, he was detained by police twice, once on September 5, where he was questioned over a video he had published earlier. Attorneys said he was arrested for being in possession of evidence of money laundering, and again on September 7 at a house in Diego Martin where he had been ordered to stay as part of his bail conditions.

He was detained at the Immigration Detention Centre in Aripo until Justice Kevin Ramcharan granted an emergency injunction allowing him to meet his attorneys on September 8.

In a late afternoon hearing, on September 9, Justice Robin Mohammed was told that National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds agreed not to deport Hughes and to have him released as soon as possible.

A “mentally exhausted” Hughes said despite the legal challenges he faced in Trinidad and Tobago, he still loves the country, but fears for his safety and freedom while he faces the sedition charges.

“I am around a team of very smart people. We knew this was going to happen. Before the sedition charge I was held on a set of gang-related charges. There was no evidence of that. Then they threw the sedition charge. There is no evidence of that. Then they threw the money laundering charge, and there was no evidence of that. So now they are going through the deportation order. What’s next?

“I have been to wars around the world. I have been to places like Haiti, which is more dangerous than here. But here, I am waking up with cold sweats every night. It is like post-traumatic stress disorder, where I can hear police breaking into my house. It is a fear that I have never felt before. I really fear for my safety.”

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