Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar has called on the officers involved in the Brent Thomas case to state whether they were directed by the Minister of National Security to travel to Barbados to detain Thomas last October to detain the local firearms dealer.

In the Parliament last Friday, National Security Minister maintained that he gave no approval in the case. But the Opposition Leader has questioned whether government is washing its hands of wrongdoing, allowing any blame to be laid on police.

“Fitzgerald Hinds has now publicly claimed in our Parliament that he had no idea how police officers ASP Birch, Senior Supt Suzette Martin and Cpl Joefield were all able to commandeer a CARICOM aircraft, to forcibly and illegally detain and abduct Brent Thomas from Barbados. Both the Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago governments have said the Brent Thomas abduction is illegal,” Persad-Bissessar said in a statement over the weekend.

She added: “Most concerning are allegations that members of the hierarchy of the TTPS are coercing and attempting to convince the officers who are implicated in this abduction to modify their reports to protect the minister who may have been directing them all along. I again call on the officers implicated in the illegal Brent Thomas abduction: do not trust Keith Rowley, Fitzgerald Hinds and the hierarchy of the TTPS. It is time to put yourselves, your families, and the reputation of the TTPS first. Do not continue to believe those who are washing their hands of you, seek legal advice, tell the country the truth and let the chips fall where they may.”