By Akile Simon
Jun 22, 2011 – trinidadexpress.com
SASHA MOHAMMED, adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has for the first time denied that she sent threatening e-mails to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass.
Mohammed, through her attorneys Jagdeo Singh, Ravi Rajcoomar and Kelvin Ramkissoon, sent a three-page letter to Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs yesterday, asking what offence she committed.
The letter has come on the heels of mounting calls for Persad-Bissessar to dismiss Mohammed and the police to lay criminal charges against Mohammed after their investigations revealed that the threatening e-mails came from Mohammed’s computer at her home.
Persad-Bissessar remained mum on the issue for the fifth day yesterday.
Full Article : trinidadexpress.com
Mohammed’s lawyers to CoP: What’s the offence
By Rhonda Rambally
Jun 22, 2011 – guardian.co.tt
Attorneys representing former senior journalist, now special adviser to the Prime Minister, Sasha Mohammed, say they have evidence she never sent threatening e-mails to Trinidad Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass.
A letter sent to Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs, signed by attorney Ravi Rajcoomar, yesterday stated “such evidence” would be forwarded to him only on the condition he could justify the complaint was one which should have ever engaged the T&T Police Service or constituted a criminal offence known to the laws of T&T. Attorneys Kelvin Ramkissoon and Jagdeo Singh also are representing Mohammed.
Full Article : guardian.co.tt
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PNM tells of Internet hate mail from ‘Janice’
The Opposition PNM’s Internet Web sites had received abusive, racist comments from an entity, using the name “Janice Thomas,” before and after last year’s general election and up to recently during the Reshmi Ramnarine issue, says PNMTV’s Dane Wilson
Ramsamooj says Sasha should quit
After being interviewed by police, Sasha Mohammed should offer her resignation to Prime Minister Kamla Persad if she is to be any sort of asset to the PM, political analyst Derek Ramsamooj said…
Fuad begs citizens: Leave Sasha alone
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Sasha Mohammed’s Attorneys Respond
Letter to the Commissioner of Police, Dwayne Gibbs
21st June, 2011
Mr Dwayne Gibbs
THE COMMISSIONER OF POLICE
Police Administration Building
Corner Edward and Sackville Streets
Port of Spain.
Dear Sir,
*Re: SASHA MOHAMMED*
I act along with Mr Kelvin Ramkissoon and Mr Jagdeo Singh on behalf of Ms Sasha Mohammed.
My Client has instructed that it was reported in the print and electronic media of Saturday 18 June instant that you have stated that the police were continuing certain criminal investigations in the issue of certain alleged threatening email communications sent to Ms Anna Ramdass, Political Reporter to the Trinidad Express Newspaper, and to Ms OmatieLyder, Editor in Chief to the said newspaper.
It is alleged that these email communications were purportedly sent by our client, or at the very least, sent from an email address that is designated to our client and that the same were sent under a nom de plume.
Our instructions are that two police officers of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, namely Messrs Ajith Persad and Rennie Grant, interviewed our client on Friday 17 June 2011, and among other things, told her that the alleged email communications were traced to an IP address which was designated to her. Consequent upon the said utterances, the said officers issued a warning to our client and urged her to cease and desist from any such future conduct.
We are instructed are that even though our client was at the time represented by Counsel, remarkably, no caution was issued to her by the police as required under the provisions of the Judges Rules of Trinidad and Tobago.
Our client has further instructed that upon advice and instructions from her former Counsel, and acting upon such advice, she remained silent and but clearly denied any wrong doing on her part or any knowledge of wrongdoing and denied anything that was put to her by the police officers undertaking the interview. Further, we are instructed that despite the admonition issued by the police to her, curiously, no specific offence was identified to our client as being the subject of investigations by the police. Our client was however, then given an assurance by the police that the issuing of this warning would have brought conclusion to the matter.
The position of our client however, has been, and continues to be, that she denies knowledge about the issuing of the said purported emails to the concerned parties and in this regard, cannot be held culpable.
In this context, and having regard to the failure to identify the offence which is or was being investigated in relation to our client, we are to demand clarification on this issue so as to be in a position to better and adequately advise her on the law and constituent elements of any offence for which investigations are being pursued.
You would appreciate that procedural fairness dictates that when the police are mandated to pursue investigations into a criminal complaint, and when the stage had been arrived at to conduct an interview of a suspect, the most basic requirement of the law is that such a person must be informed of the specific criminal offence which he or she is alleged to have committed and is further required to be told that he or she is suspected to having committed the said offence.
Our instructions are that none of these basic procedural requirements were complied with in relation to our client at the interview to which our client attended on the 17th instant with the two aforementioned police officers.
You would undoubtedly agree that not every matter which is reported to the police necessarily forms the basis of a criminal enquiry. It may be that there are circumstances where the conduct complained of simply does not amount to the commission of a criminal offence known to law, and as such, the jurisdiction of the police is not thereby involved.
In the circumstances where the said police officers met with our client and issued a warning to her, there would have had to be a basis in law for them to do so. We therefore now seek clarification from you as to what is the specific offence which our client is alleged to have committed and the necessary particulars thereof.
We make this enquiry since in our respectful view, having examined and considered the factual matrix of the case, there appears to be no known breach of the criminal law for which our client can be the subject of investigation, let alone be deemed culpable so as to justify an admonition on the part of your officers. The much touted ‘cyber bullying’ concept is not a criminal offence in Trinidad and Tobago, and is as such an alien concept which forms no part of the laws and jurisprudence of this country. Any conduct suggestive thereof cannot therefore constitute a basis for a police investigation or offence.
Where therefore the police have determined that our client had not committed a specific criminal offence the appropriate course of action was for the investigation to have been closed with the usual recommendation of ‘no further police action’ or, in the usual police nomenclature, “NFPA.”
It would have been wholly wrong for the police to have come to a conclusion of the commission of no criminal offence, yet proceed to issue a warning to our client. In these circumstances, our client has been advised that the action of the police in pursuing such a course of conduct was illegal and a flagrant violation of the rules of procedural fairness to which our clientis justly entitled.
Having regard to the vortex of negative publicity which the issues surrounding this matter have generated, we respectfully ask that you provide a reply to our enquiry by this missive within three days.
We hasten as well to record our utter consternation as to the appearance of our client’s name on every media publication and broadcast the very day she was interviewed by the police and on subsequent dates.
Apart from being contrary to law in that our client had not been charged with any criminal offence or appeared before a court of law, the logical inference is that information with respect to this interview had been surreptitiously leaked from the police service to the media, which resulted in a veritable media frenzy as evidenced by the plethora of public broadcasts and publications that followed with tremendous prominence.
We take serious umbrage to this improper dissemination of information and call upon you to launch the appropriate investigations to determine which party or parties may have been responsible for such atransgression to the detriment of our client. It is hoped that there would be no recurrence of such a course and that every step would be taken by you to obviate such.
In closing, it would be remiss of us not to inform you that we are in possession of incontrovertible evidence that would absolutely absolve our client from any wrongdoing in this matter and prove that she did not in fact send the purported emails to the concerned parties nor had any knowledge of such.
However, such evidence will be forwarded to you only upon the condition that you can justify that this complaint is one which ought to have ever engaged the Police Service of Trinidad and Tobago or constitutes a criminal offence known to the laws of this jurisdiction.
We anxiously await your response with due promptitude.
Yours faithfully,
Ravi Rajcoomar
Hiding behind legal gymnastics and the absence of a law in T&T.
shame on her. She is not to be trusted ever again in the media or as a mouth piece of the government.
her credibility is in deep dog doo doo
I think that the Police can seize her computer as part of their investigation and perform a forensic audit on the harddrive to locate any information such as email that may have been sent, date and time, alias that may have been used etc. There are a lot of companies here in the US that perform such services even if the information may have been deleted by the user it can still be retrieved.
Thanks guys ,for just as we were on the verge of giving up ,fellow Cyber buddy T-Man ,and I , can gain some appreciation as to what the expression ” square pegs in round hole, ” entails , and or applies to.
Such a tragedy , dat our suffering 1.3 million ,collection of peoples, stuck in throes of socio -economic – com political despair, all across this once beautiful country ,must of necessity ,endure this repeated stupidity , and blatant public faux paus,for what ,another two years ?
Then of course , one never knows , maybe I am wrong , and the continual ‘shoot in the foot, ineptitude of dem PNMites blokes,’ encouraged by the vindictive ,’political has been Patrick Manning,’ Hazel , and his rabid fans ,might take it’s toll, so that maybe it’s another 5 years in actuality, unless of course, a Cuban doctor can be encouraged to…..
Then on second thoughts, one must pick one’s fights, so let me quit while, I am still ahead, before I antagonize someone of dem unmentionable creatures , in some selective quarters, ehhhhh? luv country , if you still can, and beware of destructive ,tribal predilections, yes?
What a long letter for such a short threatening e-mail. I await Ms. Sasha’s producing Janice Thomas, whose fingerprints will of coutrse match those on Sasha’s typewriter. An innocent little was-been reporter represented by so many big GUNS. BOY, we jest like De States.Even JAck the FIFA Ex only had one lawyer.
Leave Sasha alone, she did not do it. Please people
You are correct mamoo, no one really cares about baby cascadoos caught in the ravines ,leading to the Caroni or Aranguez river. We want the big baracudas to fry over open pit fire- and don’t think for a moment I am only referring to Uncle Jack.
Burn dem , according to Black Stalin. You bunch of corrupt, culturally driven criminals! Yeah right, “change we can believe in” – Obama style.
If Uncle Obama was likewise engaging in only 1% of the idiocy that was fostered on our nation since that fateful day in 2010, as played out by political thugs within Quuen K ‘s government , he would be politically castrated , on the verge of permanent retirement already , and therefore planning what job he, and wife Michelle , would find to do come next election 2012, but not in Trinidad, and de reason is simple.
We like it so,and don’t care if Good Friday falls on Ash Wednesday, or Dewali, on August 31st, eeeeh Mamoo? Notice I deliberately left off Tobago, as they do not count in this important equation, except as a convenient footstool ,for clueless power mongrels , hell bent on a very destructive agenda, that I will assure them will backfire,as certain as night follows day, and the reasons are clear. A peaceful, resilient ,god fearing , mostly cowardly people ,will take so much , until- as the wisest lady dat ever lived would say- ,’water get more than flour.’
Would someone tell dem to forget all the foolishness they learned in old school universities across Toronto, London, and Connecticut, but instead ,learn global, inter tribal history. Again ,why you enquire? The fallouts can be quite revealing,eeeeh mamoo MAMOO?
This girl gave the impression she was a reporter for truth and justice and statements like “this is the beginning…they will understand the consequences of their actions..” coming from her computer? Some people just can’t handle power it seems. Mary, Nizam now Sasha, all people I had a lot of respect for before. What worse, like most people we voted for the PP expecting high ideals since COP, MSJ and TOP was expected to keep a check on the UNC who people still felt mistrustful of. Kamla need to send a strong message to retain people’s confidence in this coalition government.
Sasha is a good girl caught in a bad situation. Lyder and Anna lauched a vociferous PMS attack on the PM and Sasha consistently calling the PM a liar on several sensational headlines. The emails were wrong but the headlines and attack on the PM was tantamount to character asassination of the PM. People in public office do not have the means to defend themselves against such slanderous attacks. They were encourage by the PNMites who supported their position in the bloggestphere. What Sasha wrote is nothing compare to what that trashy newspaper allowed in it’s comment section against our honorable Prime Minister.
I would say to Lyder and Anna you both like to “dish it out” while hiding behind “freedumb of the press” but you can’t take a few bad emails. I have quite a few against me but then again I am a man… and that is the difference..
Yeah mamoo, hurray , as you now superseded head PP cyber rambler T-Man, and therefore holds the distinction of assuming the real soubriquet of ‘tribal apologist in chief,’ for your inability to be objective on any matter when it comes to the clan, no matter how despicable.
Sad ,but maybe it is the crazy Matlot, and Cunupia Bush rum ,you guys drank each day before starting primary school, from the time you began cutting your teeth, as runny nose kids.
We wish our country well, from the likes of your kind, and greedy unpatriotic , self serving others ,still closeted, that are equally destructive.
Neal this does not have to do with being a member of a clan. What I have stated is the facts. Neal if someone comes up to you and slap you across the face will you turn and walk away?. The worst kind of slap today is the “trial by media syndrome”.
The media in question ran several articles exploiting the relationship between the PM / Sasha in the Reshmi affair. It was humiliating and condescending to a woman of Sasha’s stature. She may have been hurt and retaliated by writing a few things in an email. I used the word “may” because Neal nothing has been proven. Should she lose her job because of this??? Should the media be given “carte blanc” when it comes to the PM? Any reporter can take a story and use it to demonise anyone under the pretense of freedum of the press. It is not so much the story Neal it was the vindictive nature of the writers in the story. The story to me was not as relevant as the tone of how it was presented the public for consumption…Think about it….
I hear you brother mamoo, and do hold some empathy for the wonderful lady in question, if as claimed, your conclusions are correct.
I’ll be frank , I know absolutely nothing about her, or about most of these side political maneuvers that are taking place across our country almost daily by those maybe with ulterior motives.
Let’s continue to play our role individually, and collectively, to see that justice is always served,speak up to truth and transparency in politics , and most importantly ,our people ,and nation become transformed positively, in keeping with it’s vast human and natural resource potentials.Take care buddy.
Public expects to hear from PM
COP’s De Lima on Sasha issue:
PM’s adviser should step aside —Ramadhar
Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar says adviser to the Prime Minister Sasha Mohammed should step aside, pending completion of investigations into threatening e-mails being sent from her computer to Express Editor-in-Chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass.
McLeod joins calls for Sasha’s removal: PM remains mum
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar maintained her silence on allegations involving her special adviser, Sasha Mohammed, for a sixth consecutive day yesterday.
“My PS would advise me”, regarding my adviser … said the PM following the swearing-in ceremony for new government ministers.
Which begs the questions: And just who advises the PS ? …
Which is the last tail that wags the first dog?
It was the same in the T&T Ministery of Health, plagued with a shortage of 275 doctors, 2,517 nurses and 161 pharmacists. The ex Health Minister knew she could get the urgently needed 2,903 health personnel on short notice with a 4th Cuban Medical Brigade from Cuba. Instead she supported the “MBTT and Associates” embargo against Cuba, and parroted the lie (that Cuban doctors do not speak English) started by private hospital individuals. Was the tail again wagging the dog? Was the Minister of Health slave to a clique of private hospital individuals?
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/SASHA_GETS_OFF-124831659.html
What do you know , we have power now , and so can continue a trend that existed for quite some time elude the long hands of the law. It begins with the fact that you possess friends in high places , that can do their magic. It continues ,via cries of racially motivated persecution ,and fake cultural genocidal claims , as played out by white color criminals thugs ,Basdeo Panday , and pals ,former Chief Justice Sharma ,as well as business Baracudas Ish, and Steve works.
It is enhanced by the fact that we are fortunate to produce a land deed,and or ,grab $US300,000 in hidden loot, from under Auntie’s mattress, so as to pay an equally unscrupulous Trini , or London based lawyer, to make our case.
Then ,just maybe , ‘dis is change we too can believe in ,’ ehhh Queen K?
What a country, and it myriad of morally depraved, unpatriotic souls! http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,128876.html However ,even as the situation degenerate from ‘bad to worse,’ tell dem for me , re the words of the greatest woman dat ever lived , in my luving Granny Lucii- “de longest rope must have an end,”yes?