Al-Rawi: McDonald Asked Me About Her Investigation

ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Rawi has revealed that MP for Port-of-Spain South and corruption-accused Marlene McDonald had asked him whether he knew about an ongoing investigation into her.

Speaking to the media at Skinner Park on Thursday, Al-Rawi said he did not make any inquires to the police about McDonald’s matter after she had asked him in Parliament a few months before she was arrested and charged.

He said Mc­Don­ald told him that Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar had in­formed her about her im­pend­ing ar­rest.

Al-Rawi said, “I cer­tain­ly will not be in a po­si­tion to in­ter­fere nor would I ever, with any po­lice mat­ter.

“Ms Mc­Don­ald asked me square­ly on that day if I knew some­thing and I re­port­ed to her that I knew noth­ing.

“Sec­ond­ly, on the day that the po­lice en­tered in­to her home and con­duct­ed the search and took her in­to cus­tody, I did re­ceive a call from Ms Mc­Don­ald very ear­ly in the morn­ing.

“She told me what was hap­pen­ing. I told her, ‘Mar­lene you have to, of course, co­op­er­ate with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice.’ She asked me if I knew any­thing about it. I told her I knew noth­ing about it.”

McDonald has been charged with mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice, con­spir­a­cy to de­fraud and mon­ey laun­der­ing and oth­er of­fences.

She was charged along with her common law husband Michael Carew, for­mer head of the Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion for Self Help Edgar Zephyrine and two con­trac­tors—Wayne An­tho­ny and Vic­tor McEachrane .

On Mon­day in the House of Representatives, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley claimed that the Per­sad-Bisses­sar had ad­vance knowl­edge of Mc­Don­ald’s ar­rest.

Row­ley said, he did not know of Mc­Don­ald’s im­pend­ing ar­rest, although he was Chairman of the National Security Council.

On Wednes­day, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith de­nied that it was the police who leaked the information to the Op­po­si­tion. He said he con­duct­ed an in­ter­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion and was as­sured by his of­fi­cers that there was no breach since weeks before she was arrested there was no information to detain her.

Al-Rawi “What I am ab­solute­ly ca­pa­ble of con­firm­ing to­day is that I know for a fact that Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar did tell Mrs Mc­Don­ald that she was go­ing to be ar­rest­ed.

“My ques­tion is how could the leader of the Op­po­si­tion know that? How could the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion have in­for­ma­tion, which I am sure, comes from low­er-rank­ing po­lice of­fi­cers of po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tions?

“I can con­firm to you the Prime Min­is­ter, the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and I as At­tor­ney Gen­er­al knew noth­ing of it.

“It would not be un­com­mon if an event had hap­pened that we would have been told af­ter the fact, but we cer­tain­ly would not be told nor would we ever ask about any on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions. There are very clear rules in so­ci­ety.”