Canadian YouTuber Chris Must List, who has been charged with sedition in Trinidad and Tobago after posting videos featuring criminal gangs, has announced that he will defend himself “alone” in that country’s courts after firing his lawyers for their high fees.
“I have fired my criminal defense attorneys and decided I’m going to take on this role myself,” Christopher Arthur Hughes, known as Chris Must List, said in a video posted Wednesday on his Instagram account.
The 45-year-old YouTuber, who was arrested last May and later released on $100,000 bail, called his lawyers’ fees “extortion” and led to his decision.
“I’m going to defend myself, that’s right! Some people might say, ‘Chris, now you’ve proven that you’re a crazy guy,’ and the truth is that so far, two appearances by my criminal lawyer, I’ve been billed $50,000,” he said, noting that he is “new enough” to the profession to pay such amounts.
On May 31, the police said in a statement that the YouTuber was accused of “publishing a statement with seditious intent on May 29, 2024.”
The investigation began, according to the authority, after “Hughes published videos in which people appeared declaring themselves gang members, advocating criminal activities and using threatening language.”
He faces a possible fine of $3,000 or two years in prison.
He appears in court on Friday.
Chris Must List, famous for his glasses and with more than 300,000 subscribers on YouTube, has made videos from Haiti to the most dangerous neighborhoods of Philadelphia, via Pakistan and South Sudan.
