BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - STEPS are being taken to strengthen two pieces of legislation that some people believe are lenient to those found to be involved in criminal activities.
According to Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, the Hon. Vincent Byron Jr., the Bail Act and the Firearms Amendment Act are two critical pieces of legislation that would be brought before the next sitting of the National Assembly.
Without disclosing the date for the next sitting of Parliament, he indicated that sometime following that presentation in the House, consideration would be given to DNA testing, among others critical components of law and order.
“What it is, is that a lot of people have been very concerned that people have committed alleged offences and have been remanded, and have been able to be released on bail. In particular, where they have had violent crimes committed with firearms,” explained Byron.
The Attorney General noted that the idea is especially geared towards those who would have committed capital offences.
“With the firearm, we are asking the court to deny bail until the matters are tried. That is fundamentally what it is. We have had a case recently - over the last year or so - where somebody who had been remanded, arrested and charged with a gun crime, had been released. That person then had to be rearrested after committing another offence.”
Against that backdrop, the Justice Minister pointed out that it is such actions that are spurring the government to act and assist the police in its fight against criminal activities in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Those comments come as the Federation recently hosted the Council of Minister of the Regional Security Systems (RSS) meeting where a call was made for laws to be implemented to combat gun and other related crime, including Cyber Crimes.
AG Byron noted that by implementing these two pieces of legislation, it would limit the number of repeat offenders carrying out gun crimes in the Federation.
St. Kitts and Nevis has been affected by such criminal activity over the last several years with many young men meeting their demise as a result.
Just last year, the Federation recorded just over 30 homicides, however, the Police Force has stepped up its efforts to deal with the problem by performing regular stop and searches operations.
The Force has also removed a large number of illegal firearms from the streets of St. Kitts and Nevis including 36 last year and six for the year thus far.
However, many have raised questions over the regular removal of those weapons and the linkages they have with criminal acts.
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