Canadian vlogger accused of sedition, permitted to leave Trinidad
Published:Thursday | June 6, 2024 | 11:10 AM
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Canadian vlogger Christopher 'Chris Must List' Hughes has been granted permission to leave Trinidad and Tobago and return before his re-appearance in court next week.
Master of the High Court, Margaret Sookraj-Goswami, granted permission at the request of Hughes' attorney Pamela Elder who said the lengthy delays in the criminal justice system were disadvantageous to her client and foreigners accused of criminal activities in general.
Based on this, Hughes' passport was returned and reporting conditions attached to his $100,000 bail removed.
Sookraj-Goswami ordered that Hughes return on June 12 for his matter and re-lodge his passport with the court.
Elder said she represented foreigners in the Piarco Airport inquiry who were allowed to come and go and to have Hughes remain in the country on the “milk of human kindness” extended by his former attorney Criston Williams was not a comfortable position.
She said the Piarco matter involved millions of dollars as compared to Hughes' who faces a $3,000 fine or two years' imprisonment.
Hughes, 45, also pleaded not guilty to publishing a seditious document.
When the matter was first called on Monday, state attorney Danielle Thompson said she was awaiting instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions on how to proceed.
The vlogger was arrested last Thursday after publishing videos in which he interviewed Trinidadian gang members about their opposition to the government.
Hughes was charged under the country's Sedition Act once Trinidadian officials became aware of the videos.
The investigation began after he posted videos from Trinidad and Tobago to his YouTube page, where he has 326,000 subscribers.
The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service said in a statement that the videos featured “individuals professing to be gang members".
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