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The media asked Williams whether he stands by those SOE's as lawful and necessary.

Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Transport
"You have different judgements coming from the high court. We'd call them conflicting judgements and so you have conflicting views coming from the same level of court because again, the fact that these courts are on the same level they do not, precedence would not work and so when we have issues like that then it has to go to the higher court to be able to resolve the issue. So the prime minister has made it clear that the matter is going to go to the court of appeal and then we see what the court of appeal says. If we do not get satisfaction from there then we will go all the way ahead to the CCJ which is the apex court and whatever decision they would have made then would be binding on the courts below."

Reporter:
"I know that was under your tenure, do you believe anything was wrong in allowing that SOE to happen?"

Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Transport
"I maintain my position and I am happy to see that the current commissioner also has the same view that if you have a situation where police work, police strategies have been unable to diffuse the level of violence that is taking place within the society, the government does have a responsibility to act and do what needs to be done to make the society safer. Unfortunately, the SOE is one of the mechanisms that can be used and it works, people all across the country, if you look at the discourse on social media, they speak of it and they want to see more being done in respect of this. And so if it works to be able to not just make society more peaceful but at the same time it also serves as means to preserve the life of these young men who are gunning down each other on the street so I believe that if we just stand by and see them killing themselves then we are no better than them."

As we told you, the state will appeal one judgement, while Attorney Leeroy Banner will appeal the other.