Trinidad and Tobago's attorney general said the government...

Trinidad and Tobago's attorney general said the government would wait for courts to test a ruling by a human rights tribunal telling the country not to execute 32 death row prisoners.
Attorney General Glenda Morean told reporters that on the recent ruling by the Coast Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights her position was that "it would have to be first tested in court before I say 'Yes, it is binding.'" In its ruling, the IACHR said the state breached the rights of the 31 men and one woman to speedy trials, to effective recourse, to apply for amnesty, pardon or commutation and to decent prison conditions.
The IACHR told Trinidad and Tobago, a Caribbean nation of 1.3 million people, to retry the 32 condemned prisoners and said they should not be executed in any event.
The court also ordered Trinidad and Tobago to pay $60,000 to the wife of Joey Ramiah, who was among nine men executed in 1999. He had complained in a petition about poor prison conditions.
Her comments would effectively mean that a lawyer for one of the inmates would have to go to court, citing the ruling.
In the past, Trinidad and Tobago's government has respected the rulings of the IACHR. The attorney general's office said earlier this week that the court made its ruling on June 21 but the English-translated documents were received only on July 8 and were being reviewed by the solicitor general's department.
Trinidad and Tobago hanged a reputed drug lord and eight of his cronies during a four-day period in 1999. The Bahamas, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines also have carried out executions in the past seven years.