LIAT to sue Dominica police
by Paul Charles
Caribbean Net News Dominica Correspondent
Thursday, August 11, 2005
ROSEAU, Dominica: LIAT's manager in
Dominica, Gerard Cools-Lartigue, said on Wednesday that legal action would be
taken against the local police following the arrest of two of the regional
airline's employees on an "obstruction of justice" charge.
Cools-Lartigue said company's head office
based in Antigua had instructed its lawyers to file a lawsuit on behalf of the
men who they said were victims of abusive policing.
"LIAT have indicated that they are definitely going to take legal action," he
said.
The two traffic officers of the airline
based at the Melville Hall Airport - about 30 north-east of the capital,
Roseau - were arrested on Monday and Tuesday for failing to board nine
Haitians and two Dominican Republic nationals who were being repatriated for
not having proper documents.
According to the LIAT official, one of the
men went on a hunger strike before he was bailed for EC$5,000 on Tuesday.
"He was put in a cell unfit for human
beings. It was pathetic to see the state of the place he was kept," Cools-Lartigue
said.
Kertiste Augustus, president of the
Waterfront and Allied Workers Union (WAWU) - the representative body of the
local LIAT workers - said the police wanted to set a "dangerous precedent".
"We're very disappointed, we're very
surprised and that could create a very dangerous precedent in people coming
and giving instructions to traffic officers," he said.
Attorney general Ian Douglas said there was
a need for collaboration between the airline and the immigration department
which is an arm of the local police force.
"The police have their work to do and so one should not infringe or hamper the
other," he said. The two men are on bail and
will appear in court next month, according to the police who have otherwise
kept mum on the matter.
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