By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe said yesterday the government plans to amend legislation to extend witness anonymity protections in relation to the anti-gang law.

He said police have presented a formal request for the change, which will be pursued with the Office of the Attorney General and the Law Reform Commission. He said he expects the amendment to be considered in the upcoming legislative session.

“When you prosecute gangs, you do so by a number of methods,” Mr Munroe said at an Office of the Prime Minister press briefing. “One of them is speaking to people in a gang. Well, clearly if they have to stand up early and be exposed, that’s problematic.”

“Currently, the statute for the anonymity of witnesses covers murder as an offense, but it doesn’t specifically cover gang activity, and so it’s not that it’s a new piece of legislation that is being sought. It’s a natural progression to assist in the work. You not going to be able to get people to, what the young people say, turn crown without a little bit of that.”

He said gang prosecutions in The Bahamas are complicated by close family ties. “If you and I are brothers or cousins, the fact of us associating together is not outside our social norm and so you need a little bit more information than they live in the same house, they always together, that sort of thing,” he said. “While in a large metropolitan country persons associating may be unnatural, family members associating in The Bahamas is not unnatural.”

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has previously said charges under the new anti-gang law, passed more than a year ago, are expected to be brought “very shortly”.

Mr Munroe said he is satisfied the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s Anti-Gang and Gun Unit is being “methodical and diligent” in its investigations.