Port of Spain last Sunday. (PHOTO: ROBERTO CODALLO)
Trinidad’s senior counsel Dana Seetahal was not only killed, “she was assassinated.” That’s the strong sentiment coming from a family member who spoke to The STAR on Wednesday.
On Sunday May 4, five shots rang out in the populated area of Woodbrook, Port of Spain, fatally hitting Seetahal. It was around 12.05 a.m. and she was on her way home from the popular Ma Pau casino in her Volkswagen Touareg SUV.
“She loved the casino,” said her relative. “She enjoyed going there, at weekends especially, to enjoy a couple of drinks and have a little fun.”
She added: “What I found strange, though, was how she left earlier than usual on Sunday. Usually she would leave about one in the morning.”
Asked whether she agreed with the Trinidad media that the killing was a “hit,” she said relatives are convinced it was. Our source speculated that Seetahal may have received a call while at the casino, which would explain her early departure.
“I believe that she was then followed by one vehicle from the casino while the other came at her from the opposite direction.”
Since Sunday’s murder, police have indicated they are following up several leads, including the activities of an alleged hitman said to have operated in Trinidad for several years. There is also much talk that intelligence sources intercepted a prison call to the “hitman” about the murder.
On Thursday ACP Wayne Dick told Trinidad reporters: “We do have some positive leads and we are pursuing them relentlessly. Once we have no hiccups, the perpetrators will be brought to justice.”
Family members say: “Dana we know as a fair and just person. We are aware that she has worked on some high profile cases, most recently the Coolman case. She stood for what was right and now we will do whatever we can to see justice is served.”
Dana Seetahal lived in the upscale One Woodbrook Place in Port of Spain, having recently purchased an apartment there for TT$2.6 million. She was an independent Senator in the Trinidad and Tobago Senate and in 2006 was made Senior Counsel. As an attorney-at-law she had a private practice and was formerly a lecturer at the Hugh Wooding Law School where she was the Course Director in Criminal Practice and Procedure.
Seetahal has previously served as a State Prosecutor, Assistant Solicitor General and Magistrate. She wrote weekly columns for the Trinidad Saturday Express Newspaper and also published her first book “Commonwealth Caribbean on Criminal Procedure” which was described as the first of its kind.
The funeral service for Dana Seetahal SC was held on Thursday May 8, at the Aramalaya Presbyterian Church, Tunapuna Trinidad. Her body was expected to be taken to the Belgrove’s crematorium, Tacarigua to be cremated. Seetahal would have been 59 on July 8 of this year.
