Reputed gang leader Rajaee Ali is receiving special privileges in prison, according to a senior prisons officer. This was the evidence tendered yesterday in defence of a lawsuit filed by Ali who is claiming inhumane treatment at the Port-of-Spain Prison.
Ali, who is on remand for the murder of Dana Seetahal, SC, and conspiring to murder radio announcer Kevaughn “Lerbz” Savory, is one of the best treated prisoners as he received special privileges and attention, prisons supervisor Christopher Vidale stated.
In the affidavits obtained by the T&T Guardian, the prisons officer said Ali was being kept in solitary confinement in a high security cell at the prison, known as F1, because of the high-profile nature of his alleged crimes and the fact that he escaped from the Golden Grove State Prison in Arouca while on remand for separate charges in 2007.
Vidale claimed Ali was also given a mattress and a fan which normally could not be held in overcrowded cells. Other inmates on remand usually slept in make-shift hammocks. “I am not aware as to the reasons why the claimant was given his own fan but this was a case of special treatment and is quite irregular,” he stated.
Besides being kept apart from other inmates, Ali is also complaining of being denied his daily one-hour “airing time” afforded to all remand prisoners under the Prisons Service’s regulations.
Another prisons officer, Ian Hypolite, who is assigned to supervise Ali’s movement outside his cell, denied that allegation as he claimed Ali would sometimes refuse to leave his cell or would ask to cut his “airing time” short.
While Hypolite claims a logbook had been created specifically to monitor Ali’s movements, he admitted the records might be incomplete as he could not say whether other officers maintained entries like he did. Hypolite also denied Ali’s allegation his cell was infested with vermin.
During a brief hearing of the case before Justice Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell in the Port-of-Spain High Court yesterday, Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, who is representing the State, asked for additional time to file additional evidence. Mendes request was not opposed by Ali’s lawyer Gerald Ramdeen.
After granting the extension, Donaldson-Honeywell suggested that the court may have to do a site visit at the prison before the case went to trial. She also suggested that Ali could be cross-examined from the prison, using video conferencing equipment, if prisons officials had security concerns.
The case has been adjourned to March 7.