Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Torture teen three years later…Nandlall backpedals on torture teen compensation
…says he has to ascertain Govt. next move
The teenager who had his genitals set alight in 2009 during a Police murder
Twyon Thomas, Shirley Thomas and Khemraj Ramjattan.
nvestigation is yet to receive the $6.5M in compensation awarded by the High Court.
“I come here just to make (attorney-at-law Khemraj Ramjattan) collect my son money…We need the money for him,” the teen’s mother, Shirley Thomas, told Kaieteur News yesterday.
Ramjattan had taken the mother and the teen, Twyon Thomas, now aged 17, to meet with Attorney General Anil Nandlall.
Last June, High Court judge Roxanne George-Wiltshire ruled that the teen should be compensated by the State.
However, Ramjattan said that the Attorney General had claimed that the teen and his mother had abandoned Ramjattan, and that he (Ramjattan) was seeking to collect the money.
On Tuesday, in a statement sent to Kaieteur News, Nandlall stated, “I indicated in the press that the Government may consider settling the case in which judgment was granted to Twyon Thomas (the genitals burning case) in the sum of approximately GYD$6,000,000.00 (six million dollars), provided that the victim comes forward because I have information that this person’s whereabouts are now unknown.”
“The clients are here with me to make our presence felt for the purpose of vindicating me as their lawyer; they have not abandoned me,” Ramjattan stated, yesterday.
“We had indicated that we want our monies and that the monies ought to be paid over,” he added.
When confronted yesterday, Kaieteur News understands that the Attorney General claimed the money was not made available by the government and that he had to verify if the government wanted to proceed with an appeal of the court’s decision or if it would pay the teenager.
He had backpedaled one day later after his bold statement, Ramjattan said.
After the decision by Justice George-Wiltshire, the government filed an appeal. That appeal is still to be heard. However, Nandlall, before his appointment as Attorney General, had questioned the decision by the government to appeal the judge’s decision.
It is not clear whether as Attorney General he would now persuade the government to withdraw its appeal.
Mrs Thomas said that she did not come forward earlier before because she was in the North West District.
Ramjattan had sued the then Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police, and the two police ranks who tortured Thomas when he was 14 years old as part of an investigation into the death of Region Three official, Ramnauth Bisram.
The two police ranks, Sergeant Narine Lall and Constable Mohanram Dulai – were freed of the criminal charges brought against them after the teen repeatedly failed to show up in court.
Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire found that the teenager’s fundamental rights were violated. She described his treatment as “degrading, humiliating and debasing.”
She had said that “the torture and cruel and inhuman treatment meted out to Thomas has demonstrated and established an absolute and flagrant disregard for his constitutional rights.”
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