Turks and Caicos officials have slammed remarks from US lawmakers who traveled to the islands earlier this week to press for the release of the Americans who were arrested there \u2013 and could possibly face 12-year sentences. <\/p>\n
In a House of Assembly address, the islands\u2019 Premier Washington Misick said, \u201cThe accusation of congressman (Guy Reschenthaler) against the government and people of the Turks and Caicos Islands are nothing more than diabolic falsehoods.\u201d <\/p>\n
A US congressional delegation traveled to the islands to meet with officials earlier this week to press for the release of the detained Americans charged with the possession of ammunition. <\/p>\n
Three of the Americans \u2013 Michael Lee Evans, Bryan Hagerich and Tyler Wenrich \u2013 have pleaded guilty to possession of ammunition while traveling in Turks and Caicos, according to the Turks and Caicos government, with Hagerich set to be sentenced on Friday. <\/p>\n
A fourth person, Ryan Tyler Watson, will appear in court on June 7. A fifth person, Sharitta Shinese Grier, was arrested last week and is awaiting trial after making bail, according to Kimo Tynes\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b, director of communications in the Office of the Premier and Public Policy. <\/p>\n
One of the US lawmakers, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, said in a statement on Monday, \u201cUnfortunately, despite our willingness to work with Turks and Caicos officials to get our constituents home, we were not able to find a path forward today.\u201d <\/p>\n
In an interview with ABC News earlier this week, Reschenthaler said, \u201cIt\u2019s to the point now, (where) every third week an American is being detained wrongfully and Turks and Caicos.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThey were innocent mistakes. Any other nation would handle this with a fine in sending that person back to the country of origin. Here, that\u2019s not happening,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cThe prison on Turks and Caicos has been flagged by the UN for humanitarian concerns.\u201d <\/p>\n
The congressman said the minimum 12-year sentence that ammunition charges carry is \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d and that the Americans brought the ammunition unknowingly. <\/p>\n
Turks and Caicos Gov. Dileeni Daniel-Selvaratna said in a news release on Wednesday that Turks and Caicos values its relationship with the US and that the two countries work in \u201cstrong partnership to tackle shared threats in the region.\u201d <\/p>\n
The statement said Turks and Caicos did not target US citizens and called Reschenthaler\u2019s remarks about the congressional delegation\u2019s trip to the islands to meet with officials \u201chighly regrettable.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cHis characterisation of our meeting is not one we recognise,\u201d the statement read. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur discussions were professional and respectful with a focus on clarifying the legal position and the well-being of the individuals,\u201d the statement continued. <\/p>\n
The governor added that the mandatory minimum 12-year sentence for possession of firearms and\/or ammunition is in place to protect those in the islands and that the law provides discretion in \u201cexceptional circumstances\u201d for the judge to impose a reduced sentence. <\/p>\n
No US citizen has received the 12-year sentence to date, according to the statement. <\/p>\n
Misick said out of a total of 195 people sentenced for firearm-related offenses over the last six years, only seven were US citizens. The premier said Thursday no special treatment should be given to any group. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe law must be applied even-handedly,\u201d Misick said. <\/p>\n
While the US and Turks and Caicos work together in battling narcotics, terrorism and money laundering, \u201cour laws and processes are not congruent,\u201d Misick said. \u201cWe are a separate sovereignty. We respect the United States\u2019 laws and we will never think to interfere in its operation.\u201d <\/p>\n
The government of Turks and Caicos, Misick said, would take \u201cdecisive and comprehensive action to preserve the safety and security of our nation,\u201d adding while the country does not manufacture firearms or ammunition, the number of firearms finding its way to the islands has increased. <\/p>\n
The appointed member of the opposition, Alvin Garland, expressed his concern over the American citizens who have been arrested in Turks and Caicos for possession of ammunition over the last six months. <\/p>\n
Garland said the islands\u2019 governor is correct in not interfering with the ongoing court cases in order to adhere to the government\u2019s separation of powers, but added he believes most, if not all, of the cases involving American tourists will fall into the \u201cexceptional circumstances category\u201d and sentences could be shorter than the mandatory 12-year minimum. <\/p>\n
This story has been updated with additional information.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Turks and Caicos officials have slammed remarks from US lawmakers who traveled to the islands earlier this week to press for the release of the Americans who were arrested there \u2013 and could possibly face 12-year sentences. In a House of Assembly address, the islands\u2019 Premier Washington Misick said, \u201cThe accusation of congressman (Guy Reschenthaler) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}