Ex-prisoner seeks asylum in UK

Black Immigrant Daily News

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AN ex-convicted prisoner of the Women’s Prison in Arouca who now lives in the United Kingdom where she has applied for asylum has filed a constitutional claim against the State.

Nadia Pooran says she was forced to flee Trinidad after witnessing a murder in 2019 and because of the scorn and ridicule she faced after she came out of prison where she was serving time for manslaughter.

She is suing the State for alleged contravention of her rights. She has complained of being subjected to cruel and unusual treatment during the five years she was remanded without bail for murder and for the eight years on conviction while she awaited the hearing of her appeal on sentence. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2008.

Pooran says she was wrongly classified as a convicted prisoner while her appeal of sentence was pending.

In March 2021, a year after her constitutional claim was filed, the State filed an application to compel her to provide $100,000 as security for costs in the event her lawsuit is unsuccessful.

In its application, the State argued because Pooran currently lives in the UK and because it is unaware if she has any assets in TT to satisfy any cost order made against her, she should be made to pay the amount upfront.

On Thursday, Justice Robin Mohammed dismissed the State’s application, saying it would be unjust to make an order for security for costs as it would be oppressive on Pooran because it could potentially deny her an opportunity to sustain her constitutional challenge.

In his ruling, Mohammed said that granting such an order was discretionary and the court had to weigh several factors, including the importance of the case and the financial position of each party.

He also said her living in the UK at present did not make it impossible for the enforcement of any cost order since there were legislative instruments to allow for enforcement outside the jurisdiction.

In resisting the cost application, Pooran said she had a hard life growing up with severe financial constraints. She said she continued to suffer financially because she was an asylum seeker as she is not allowed to work and had to rely on what the State provides

She said her application for asylum was being processed and would have to try to divert funds from a scholarship she received in 2020 to fund a degree in sociology to satisfy any cost order but doing so would result in her having to abandon her studies. She also says she cannot leave the UK because she does not have witness protection from the Government.

“This is not a situation where I am absconding. I have fled Trinidad due to the imminent threats on my life and failure of the State to provide witness protection.”

Pooran left prison in 2016. She got to the UK in 2019 and when she got there was detained because of her conviction as she was considered a threat to the public. She was told she would be deported and she told the immigration officer at Gatwick Airport, London, she was there to seek asylum.

In 2008, Pooran and her cousin pleaded guilty to killing retired school teacher Ralphie Ramcharan in March 2003. Also charged were two men who also pleaded guilty and were sentenced for their role in the crime.

Pooran received 20 years of hard labour and successfully appealed the severity of her sentence, receiving one of 12 years.

Ramcharan was robbed of his money and placed in the car’s back seat. His hands and feet were bound. He was stabbed with a pair of scissors, struck repeatedly with a wheel spanner, stripped, and then thrown into a waterway off Black Dirt Trace in Barataria. Ramcharan’s burnt car and clothes were later found, as was his body on March 26, 2003.

Ramcharan was stabbed 54 times.

She is represented by Anand Ramlogan SC, Renuka Rambhajan, Dr Ché Dindial, Alana Rambaran and Ganesh Saroop in the constitutional claim while the State is represented by Fyard Hosein, SC, Monica Smith and Maria Belmar-Williams, Savitri Maharaj and Svetlana Dass.

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