By SEAN DOUGLAS Saturday, November 21 2009

THE Opposition in the Lower House yesterday abstained on a vote on the Evidence (Amendment) Bill 2009 which allows the videotaping of witness statements for criminal trials.

The Bill however was passed by the requisite special majority, as 26 Government MPs voted in favour, to zero MPs voting against, while nine Opposition MPs abstained. The Bill, with several amendments, now returns to the Senate for debate.

Yesterday Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday led colleagues at a media conference at the parliamentary tea break at the Red House.

He said despite the Bill getting a three-fifths majority, the Opposition had made its concerns felt by abstaining. Panday said that while some clauses were commendable, others were draconian, and could result in innocent people being hanged on the basis of evidence not given under oath, and not tested, and also without witnesses being called. “This legislation will facilitate the framing of people,” he alleged.

Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the sitting had shown that the Government had not taken on board a single suggestion from the Opposition. Princes Town North MP Subhas Panday repeated his earlier call for police officers not to be involved in video taping the statements of witnesses.

Earlier, in the Lower House, Subhas Panday had said, “We don’t want the police taking people into a police station and coaching him to talk onto the video”.

Attorney General John Jeremie replied that police stations at Tunapuna and Belmont were already being outfitted for the video taping of witness statements. Panday persisted to ask that witness statements be recorded at the campuses of the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). House Leader Colm Imbert interjected to ask if this was done in any other jurisdiction. Panday replied that it was his original idea.