Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
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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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