The five Royal Bahamas Defence (RBDF) Marines charged with causing harm, among other infractions, to a group of Cuban detainees told their lawyer they did not use their firearms to restrain the attempted escapees because they were not confident that the government would stand behind them.
Lawyer for the group Wayne Munroe said Monday that perhaps if the marines did shoot at the detainees the situation would have been far worse.
“Look what has happened and nothing serious even happened to these detainees,” he said.
“Could you imagine what would have happened if they had taken the shot?”
Earlier this year, it was reported that a number of Cuban detainees attempted to escape custody and had to be forcefully restrained, but according to the Cubans they were beaten by officers for nearly two hours.
The marines’ attorney said given the mere nature of their job, things of this nature will happen and the RBDF officers will have to act accordingly.
The marines, one petty officer, two leading seamen and two able seamen, were charged with causing harm or wound, bringing discredit to the force and failure to follow commands.
“It’s like you are a reporters and if your people send you out to do a job and the first time an allegation is made against you and they tell you, you are on your own and you have to find your own lawyer you would be slow to report and would not be so eager to do your job the full measure.”
However, National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage said he is pleased those marines implicated in this issue did not use their guns to restrain them.
In fact, he told reporters that he is “very happy” that weapons were not used to subdue those detainees who attempted to escape.
“The persons in the detention centre are detainees and there are international regulations and protocols on how to deal with them,” Dr. Nottage added. “I am very happy that they acted in that instance in the way that they did and I would not have expected them to use live firearms in such a situation.”
According to sources some medical and other documents are still outstanding.
There has not been any indication as to when the actual hearing will begin.
