Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee says he will seek to toughen gun laws to deny bail to suspects on firearms charges.
The Minister made the comment a day after a court granted bail in the sum of $1M (US$5,000) to prominent foreign exchange dealer Farouk Razzac, who is charged with being in possession of arms and ammunition.
“There are plans in place to amend the legislation to make (charges of) possession of illegal firearms non-bailable,” Rohee told reporters.
According to the BBC Caribbean Report, the Minister said he was “upset” at the court's decision.
Razac, who runs a large currency-changing business, was arrested along with his beauty queen wife, Carolan Lynch, last Friday.
They have been charged jointly with illegal possession of arms and ammunition.
Police said they found a sub-machine gun and more than 100 rounds of ammunition at the couple's home.
In granting bail, Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys said he was doing it on the grounds that Razac was a prominent businessman and the police had seized US$315,000 from a safe belonging to him.
Lynch, who recently won a Mrs. South America beauty pageant in Georgetown , was initially denied bail by another magistrate but was subsequently granted her pre-trial liberty by the High Court.
Both the administration and the police have been expressing concern over the granting of bail by the courts to persons who are charged with illegal firearm possession and other prevalent crimes.
Several police commissioners have complained that this state of affairs does not complement the work of the law enforcement agencies in curtailing criminal activity.
However, in an invited comment, one magistrate who asked to remain anonymous told this newspaper that until such time that the law changes to make gun related crimes a non-bailable offence, the Minister ought not to be angry.
He explained that bail was never meant to be punitive but is a condition that is implemented to ensure that the accused returns to court to stand trial.
“A learned judge granted bail to one of the accused (Carolan Lynch) even after a magistrate remanded her to prison,” the magistrate said.