Regional Support For Second Courthouse

(ZIZ News) — St. Kitts has received regional support for the establishment of a second courthouse in Basseterre.

Attorney General, the Hon. Vincent Byron said the government has already held discussions with the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court about the new courthouse and the body is in favour of the move.

“They are very supportive of what we do and have asked us to put in place certain support systems. And once we are able to provide support staff: secretaries, bailiffs and so on, to support another judge that we will be having, we hope, early in the New Year a second judge for the St. Kitts Circuit,” he said.

Byron noted that for years there had been a backlog of cases that had not been heard. He said something needs to be done.

“People are languishing in jail for too long on remand, sometimes two years, three years,” he said adding “Some of the matters are taking too long to get before the court. And if we’re going to have a democratic society, a proper society in which we want to uphold the Constitutional Rule of Law, we have to have people have access to justice.”

He said that people who are charged “have to have their cases determined as quickly as possible.”

The new courthouse will be located at the Sir Lee Moore Judicial and Legal Complex at East Independence Square Street.