Police arrest and release Dr. Fontaine

Police officers arrested Senator Dr. Thompson Fontaine this afternoon at 2.30 and released him five hours later.

"I'm still not in the clear," Dr. Fontaine told Q95 radio just after he was released this evening. "I have to be back at Police Headquarters tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock."

Dr. Fontaine, a member of the opposition United Workers Party (UWP), was part of a protest meeting held on Tuesday last week against the government's management of the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme and the issuance of diplomatic passports to persons who later ended up on the wrong side of the law.

A few hours after the protest meeting ended hordes of rampaging youth burnt garbage in the streets, looted stores and broke glass windows in Roseau, the capital. Police used tear gas to control the situation.

In an address to the nation one day after the protest meeting, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit accused the opposition of plotting a coup against his government. The opposition scoffed at Skerrit's accusation.

Throughout the weekend there were rumours that the police were out to arrest leaders of the UWP including Fontaine and Lennox Linton, the leader of the opposition in Dominica's parliament.

"As soon as I stepped out of the station (Q95 FM, where Fontaine hosts a radio programme) I saw a government vehicle and immediately five officers in camouflage stepped out," Dr. Fontaine said.

"When I saw them I tried to use my phone to make a call. Immediately one of them was on top of me saying I could not make a call. I kept the phone to my ear; he grabbed my hand and took the phone away from my hand.

"I was patted down like a common criminal; they asked me did I have any gun on me, if I had any drugs

"They told me they were investigating a plan to overthrow Skerrit and I was one of those being investigated."