UPDATE: Newsday Journalist and family under surveillance

The saga surrounding Newsday journalist Andre Bagoo has taken a new twist.

Now Mr. Bagoo’s lawyers are calling on Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs to explain why a marked police vehicle was stationed outside his home on Sunday night.

Attorney Rajesh Ramoutar in a letter to Mr. Gibbs called the presence of the police vehicle a “transparent attempt to intimidate” Bagoo, especially after the Anti-Corruption and Investigation Bureau (ACIB) “made it clear” neither Bagoo nor Newsday were suspected of any offence.

“The searches which were effected at their offices and home were merely for the purpose of obtaining evidence relative to an ongoing investigation in relation to other persons,” Ramoutar said in the letter.

The letter added that it appeared as though the stationing of a marked car outside Bagoo’s home was to intimidate him in retaliation for his public criticism of the raid which was effected.

He further stated that the act had resulted in tremendous anxiety for Bagoo and his family. “We view this action as a serious act of misconduct on the part of the Police Service and expect that as a responsible commissioner you will immediately take steps to investigate,” Ramoutar said.

In the letter, lawyers are demanding information about who was responsible for the stationing of the police vehicle, and the reason for it being there. They are also demanding the immediate return of all property seized when police executed search warrants at Bagoo’s home and Newsday offices last Thursday.

MEANWHILE: Austria-based International Press Institute (IPI) in an open letter — cosigned by three US-based journalists’ associations — is urging Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs to work more closely with Newsday and TV 6 in their investigations.

The open letter regarding the recent raid of Newsday offices, the home of Newsday reporter Andre Bagoo, and CCN TV 6 by officers of the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau, was cosigned by the National Association of Black Journalists’ Global Journalism Task Force, IPI North American Committee, and Unity Journalists of Color.

- SOURCE