Above: Dr Keith Rowley

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Trinidad Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley said his party was “gravely disturbed” by the police raid on the Newsday newpsaper last week.

Trinidad PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar has also said the government was viewing the development with “grave concern.”

“If this is allowed to become an acceptable way of doing investigations in this country, then the very essential freedom of the press which is enshrined in our constitution will be effectively destroyed and the population will be at the mercy of the executive, which would always want to keep embarrassing information away from the knowledge of the public,” Rowley, the leader of the People’s National Movement, said in a release.

“In such a climate, there will be further strained abuse flavoured with corruption in all its forms, developments which we must all guard against,” he said.

Rowley said the opposition demanded a “full and clear explanation” from the leadership of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Force.

“We view the latest police action in the same light with which we observed the arrest and incarceration of thousands of citizens, without evidence, by the Police Service during the now-infamous State of Emergency and assassination “plot” escapades,” he said.