news from turkmenistan
Thank you for all your support. We have had many orders for our slippers, camels etc. from Brothers and Sisters around the world and we hope that they like them. We are doing what we can to survive and also to tell the message to others here.
Sis. G.
Comment: If you would like to be an agent to sell the work produced by our Sisters, please contact info@carelinks.net
Trinidad Problem and Need for Prayers
We regulary receive encouraging letters from Brother George Constantine, who a few years ago was sentenced to death by hanging in Trinidad and learnt the Truth in prison through Bible Basics. The situation has been complicated and many different appeals have been made, each giving hope to the condemned that they would not be hanged. Last year the Judicial Committee met and the decision made that those on death row would be re-sentenced as a matter of judicial discretion. This has been contested by the Trinidad and Tobago State Government. Trinidad is still a member of the Commonwealth and has appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London which is the final appeal court of Trinidad and Tobago. On 7th July the previous decision was overturned by a meeting of eight Law Lords. This means that the death sentence is still legally enforceable in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Privy Council comes under the Leader of the House of Lords, the Rt Hon The Baroness Amos. The Christadelphian Advancement Trust wrote to her concerning our Brother’s position, and whilst she cannot as a minister of the Crown comment or advise on individual cases, she constructivley replied to us on 28th July, giving some interesting facts and the account of the hearing. She rightly said, “as will be apparent, the matter is not entirely straightforward” The Judicial Committee upheld the right of the Trinidad Constitution to exact the death penalty, so what is to be the position of those who were informed last year that “their mandatory death sentences would be quashed and that they would be re-sentenced as a matter of judicial discretion” The Law Lords decision overrules that made last year, so legally Trinidad have the right of execution. However, the Law Lords were concerned at “the agony of mind of a man facing execution” and felt that those to whom last year’s judgment had been made could have the sentence of death set aside and instead impose a sentence of life imprisonment.
From this it would seem George has been spared execution, but we feel that life imprisonment is not really what we want. One legal person we discussed the case with was under the impression that the verdict could be changed to man-slaughter and that would give the possibility of George’s immediate release. Whilst this is an optimistic hope we are seeking legal advice as to how to further proceed with the matter.
Prison life is depressing and hard and the Prison Staff in Trinidad are taking industrial action to improve their own conditions which appear to be nigh on intolerable. This has alas had an adverse effect upon the prisoners, but not on those at the negotiating table! We should remember our Brother George in our prayers. Several do write to him but owing to his circumstances it is not possible for him to write to everyone. In particular Sister Helen Pyper in New Zealand writes to him regularly, every two weeks and has more or less ‘adopted’ him as a member of the family, an example that we find so humbling, especially as they have been doing that consistently for some years.
In the Caribbean Press the Privy Council’s ruling has received a mixed reception, for and against. Simeon Mcintosh, a Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of the West Indies, has written an extensive article on “Privy Councils decision flawed”. So things are not as cut and dried as one would have hoped.
