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Govt. bringing Witness Protection Bill on board

Nov 06, 2015 News

Guyana is poised to introduce Witness Protection Legislation as a Bill on this subject is scheduled to be on the agenda of the National Assembly at its next meeting, which is just weeks away.
This was revealed by Governance Minister, Raphael Trotman, during a post cabinet press briefing yesterday at the Ministry of the Presidency.
Trotman told journalists that when passed and assented to, the Witness Protection Bill 2015 will pave the way for the establishment of a programme for the protection of witnesses who would give evidence in the courts of Guyana.
He said that the legislation will ensure protection of witnesses and their families against intimidation and/or physical harm during and after their involvement in the proceedings of a case.
Trotman said that the measures to be enacted will include the establishment of state houses, the granting of assistance to participants and the provision of new identities where necessary.
The Governance Minister was then asked if other countries are going to be involved in Guyana’s soon to come witness protection programme, since it is believed in several quarters that Guyana really is too small to protect anyone from total harassment.
“This is really a crime and security Caribbean initiative and Trinidad for example, Barbados and Jamaica have already started working with each other, where they are already moving witnesses both before and during and after trials within each other’s countries. I have no doubt that Guyana will avail itself of the opportunity to do so if it is necessary to have persons in other jurisdictions,” said Trotman.
“And as I said, it is a Caricom initiative and we are now coming on stream, but Trinidad and Jamaica to a larger extent have already been collaborating on that level so the legislation will give us a sense of uniformity.”
With regard to support from international bodies and states, Trotman said, “Well I am sure you are aware of the Caribbean Basin Security initiative and that is a US based support mechanism.  Recently, the UK Prime Minister visited Jamaica where he took the opportunity to speak of a large grant in excess of $30M pounds.”
The Minister noted that security programmes feature large in that grant so training and of course, the construction of facilities and other processes will be given support in that regard.

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