Trinidad stops to honour murder victim

Over 500 Trinidad businesses closed on Friday in honour of murder victim Andrea Bharatt who was laid to rest.

The decision to shut down came after over 100 demonstrations across the country to highlight violence against women and call for legislators to pass necessary laws to reduce it.

Bharatt, 23, was kidnapped on Jan. 29 and her decomposing body was found in the Heights of Aripo one week later. The shutdown was the initiative of a group, An Act for Change, which called for women to stay away from work. Other demonstrators turned it into a call for workplaces to shut down entirely. The list grew to over 500 by the afternoon, made up of mainly small and medium-sized businesses.

Meanwhile, a local man, Negus George, 24, from Malabar, has been formally charged with Bharatt’s murder. George’s girlfriend, a 37-year-old from Malabar, is expected to be formally charged with receiving stolen property.