{"id":40256,"date":"2013-10-01T09:22:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T13:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=40256"},"modified":"2013-10-01T09:22:56","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T13:22:56","slug":"munroe-marines-want-public-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/10\/munroe-marines-want-public-hearing","title":{"rendered":"Munroe: Marines Want Public Hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) Marines accused of abusing a group of Cuban detainees at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre said they did not use their side arms to subdue a group of Cubans who attempted to escape the facility because they had no confidence in their commodore or the minister of national security to stand behind them their Attorney Wayne Munroe said recently.<\/p>\n

The disciplinary hearing of the four marines is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. today at the RBDF base in Coral Harbour Munroe said, who believes it should be open to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I ask them (my clients) why they did not shoot these \u2018fellas\u2019 when they made it to the fence, as would happen in every other facility like that, they told me the shotguns with the rubber bullets weren\u2019t working, haven\u2019t been working and one of the marines actually got cut up on his arms and hands climbing over the razor wire, which should never happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I asked them why didn\u2019t they shoot them they said because the command structure up to the commodore, they weren\u2019t confident would stand by them. \u201cThey definitely weren\u2019t confident that the politician, the minister of national security would stand by them. And that\u2019s because they aren\u2019t sure that the Bahamian public stands behind them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this thing must happen in the public so that the public can understand what it is happening with the soldiers with whom we employ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Munroe said his first point in the hearing would be to ask that the government pay the marines legal fees. \u201cThe government should be paying for this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould you imagine that your job is to do something, you do it, something happens and you have to put your hand in your pocket to pay to vindicate yourself? That can\u2019t be right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would feel guilty charging these men when all they were doing was their duty.\u201d Munroe said he would not allow the government to \u201crailroad\u201d his clients in the \u201csecrecy of shadow\u201d.<\/p>\n

Disciplinary hearings at the base are usually held in private, but given the public interest in the matter it should be public Munroe said.<\/p>\n

When asked if he would raise the issue today, Munroe said: \u201cSadly the Defence Regulations doesn\u2019t really call for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something they should consider. Certainly it is far better for people to observe it for themselves than to get secondhand reports from people like me or the other side as to what happened in the hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister of National Security Dr. Bernard Nottage said last week that the hearings would be private to \u201cavoid publication of matters which may compromise national security\u201d.<\/p>\n

Munroe, who was previously representing one marine, is now representing all four men, a petty officer, a leading hand and two marine seamen.<\/p>\n

He told The Guardian previously that the hearing was postponed.<\/p>\n

The men are accused of allegedly abusing Cuban detainees at the detention center after some of the detainees attempted to escape the facility nearly four months ago.
\nThe allegations have brewed a firestorm of controversy and protests from a group of Miami-based protestors who labeled the incident as an \u201cabuse of power\u201d.<\/p>\n

Munroe said his clients deny the allegation.<\/p>\n

Munroe said he understands that two lawyers from the Office of the Attorney General, one of whom is a Defence Force officer, may be leading the case against the marines.<\/p>\n

He said the four marines could face stoppages of pay, a reduction in rank or other disciplinary actions that would be placed on their record.<\/p>\n

Nottage said last week that the hearings are comparable to a trial before a magistrate\u2019s court, though he added that the hearings are not criminal in nature.<\/p>\n

At the time he would not reveal the names or the number of marines that were implicated.<\/p>\n

Nottage said that though the hearings would be private, they would be recorded on camera and a full report would be issued at their conclusion.<\/p>\n

He added that three independent observers would be permitted to attend the hearings in order \u201cto assure the public that the proceedings are transparent and just\u201d.<\/p>\n

By Travis Cartwright-Carroll<\/span><\/em>
\nGuardian Staff Reporter<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) Marines accused of abusing a group of Cuban detainees said they did not use their side arms to subdue a group of Cubans who attempted to escape the facility because they had no confidence in their commodore or the minister of national security to stand behind them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}