St Kitts and Nevis passes amendment to Bail Act

The bill amending the Bail Act has been passed into St Kitts-Nevis law after a debate in the National Assembly.

It is part of what the attorney general described as a “multi-faceted approach to fighting crime”.

“The bill would further empower the court in the exercise of its discretion to grant bail [with] the option of an additional condition to be considered in the granting of bail,” Vincent Byron said.

Byron, who is also minister of justice and legal affairs, added that the accused may be required to wear a monitoring device or an ankle bracelet.

Law enforcement ‘empowered’

The bill was introduced to the federal parliament on 23 May.

Under new rules, the granting of bailing is restricted for someone charged with manslaughter or murder by increasing the threshold of the burden of proof “to the standard above reasonable doubt”.

This also applies if someone has been convicted of a firearms offence and has re-offended within 10 years.

The fourth proposed change expands the list of offences for which “the application for bail would only be entertained by the High Court.”

The attorney general said that the amendments seek to “create more efficiency in the criminal justice sphere, further empower law enforcement, and strengthen deterrent effects to criminality.”