Canadian Vlogger Charged for Seditious Video in Trinidad and Tobago: Overview and Implications

A Canadian vlogger who specialises in video interviews with criminal gangs on his world travels has been arrested after posting such an exchange in Trinidad and Tobago, officials and his family said.

Christopher Arthur Hughes, who goes by ‘Chris Must List’, has been charged with “publishing a statement with a seditious intention” and will appear in a court in Port-of-Spain next week, a police statement said Thursday.

This came after the 45-year-old published a video on YouTube this week featuring alleged gang members “advocating criminal activities and using threatening language”, it said.

The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of five years and a fine of US$3,000.

Hughes, who arrived on the Caribbean island about three weeks ago, interviewed a number of alleged gang members on his travels, and shared his experiences on Facebook and YouTube — garnering more than 100,000 views.

All the videos have since been removed.

In some of them, alleged gang members bearing arms complained about their treatment at the hands of the Government.

A message on his YouTube page, purported to be from members of his family, alleged Hughes was being held without access to a lawyer.

Trinidad and Tobago sits just a few miles from mainland South America, and has become an important drug, gun and human trafficking point.

The Government says more than 100 gangs operate in the country of 1.4 million people, and has attributed nearly half of the 242 murders registered in the country last year to gang activity.

Last week, the daughter of a street food seller was kidnapped and freed, apparently for a ransom.

Four members of the gang blamed for that crime were killed by police. It was one of the gangs visited by Hughes.

SOURCE: AFP