Following public outcry regarding her statement on the Bail Act, Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Marlene Malahoo Forte, is encouraging Jamaicans to hold off on their opinion regarding the impending amendment to the Act until it has been tabled.

In the House of Representatives during her 2022/2023 Sectoral Debate last week, Malahoo Forte announced that the new amendment to the Bail Act will ensure that individuals charged with murder or illegal possession of a firearm would be denied bail.

“I’ve always said in the Parliament, let’s not talk around the law but let us look at the actual provisions of the law and that is why I say, wait until the bail act is tabled,” the Minister told OBSERVER ONLINE, who was present at the national judiciary public education symposium held at the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court earlier today.

During her contribution to the Sectoral Debate, Malahoo Forte said, “I should like to advise the Honourable House that a new Bail Act is coming. I wanted to table it today, but we are revising the wording of some clauses…I will say no more at this stage, except that if yuh on murder charge you cannot be at large and if yuh on gun charge yuh cannot be at large”.

READ: People charged with murder, gun crimes, to be denied bail under new Act — Malahoo Forte

Throwing in his support for his colleague, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, during his presentation at Thursday’s symposium, said he and Malahoo Forte are working on the new Bail Act and therefore, he is urging the public to “please hold your criticism until the Act is tabled in parliament.”

“When the Act is tabled in Parliament, then we can examine and discuss it…The Minister and I are in discussion about this act, so there’s no reason to [be] speculating and criticising the Minister…But there’s so much speculation that it’s really unfair to the Minister, that these criticisms are out there without knowing what the Act entails,” Chuck encouraged.

An earlier Jamaica Observer report confirmed that there have been repeated outcry as people on bail for murder are often involved in new homicides, and individuals on bail in relation to gun crimes who, whilst on bail, use the weapon to commit another crime.

READ: Lawyers liken Malahoo Forte’s pronouncements on Bail Act to Pandora’s box

Golding, Malahoo Forte clash over constitutional rights

A joint select committee of the Parliament has been reviewing the Bail Act and Malahoo Forte had signalled for some time that a Bill was to be tabled soon.