KINGSTOWN, St Vincent – A 56-year-old woman, who had has been charged with injuring Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves during an opposition led protest in the capital on August 5, has been slapped with another charge.
Annamay Lewis, a vendor, was granted station bail on Tuesday after she had been arrested and charged with throwing missiles. She will appear in court on Wednesday on the new charge.
But her attorney, Kay Bacchus-Baptiste, said the police are “playing for time” adding “I do not believe they have strong evidence, at all, based on what she said to me and the fact that they tried to force a confession out of her, unfairly and untruthfully”.
The new charge comes as the prosecution failed to comply with the court’s order to disclose to the defence, by August 31, the evidence against Lewis in connection with the charge that she allegedly wounded the prime minister.
“I can see they are in problems trying to come up with something to see if they can get a confession or something but even that is going to prove problematic, based on my instructions.”
Bacchus-Baptiste said that when she spoke to Commissioner of Police Colin John, on Tuesday, before the new charge was laid and that he had said that police wanted to do an electronic interview with Lewis.
Electronic interviews are usually reserved for serious offences such as those that could be tried before a judge and jury.
“But at least it’s not upgraded to an indictable offence because when he spoke about an electronic interview, it led me to believe they are going to try to do that, which would prolong the matter, maybe for a year or two years. But at least, so far, that’s not the situation,” Bacchus-Baptiste said.
Lewis was arraigned at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court, on August 9, on a charge that on August 5, she unlawfully and maliciously wounded Gonsalves, who had to be flown to neighbouring Barbados for medical treatment.
She was granted EC$3,000 (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) bail with one surety. (CMC)
