Backlog of inquests worries senior law official

Aug 10, 2008 News

– cases since 2001 still to be completed

A top legal official is once again voicing concern that inquests are not being speedily conducted in Guyana, and he is urging magistrates to deal with the backlog of cases in their districts.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that there is no valid reason for the backlog, since it is simply a case of the Chief Magistrate appointing magistrates to act as coroners, and for a jury to be selected for these inquests.
“They (the magistrates) are compelled to perform their statutory duties…the Chief Magistrate should be called upon to assign these cases to (the relevant) magistrates,” the legal official told Kaieteur News this week.

“We are concerned (about the delays) …we dealt with it in the Disciplined Services Commission Report.”
Inquests into cases as far back as 2001 are still to be completed.

In recent months, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has ordered inquests into the deaths of minibus occupants Richard Charles and Kenneth Welch, who were killed by a fallen GPL transformer in December 2007; the fatal shooting last May of 22-year-old Travis Parks in Tiger Bay, and the death of prison inmate Ramesh Sawh, who was found hanging in the Enmore Police Station lockups last January. However, none of these inquests have begun.

A few weeks ago, attorney-at-law Anil Nandlall was forced to file a writ in the High Court to compel a magistrate to begin the inquest into Sawh’s death.

By law, inquests should be held into every unnatural death. The magistrate in whose district the matter occurs is appointed as the coroner and also selects a jury.

However, many districts have more than one magistrate, and in this case, the Chief Magistrate could simply appoint one of these magistrates to be the coroner, the law official explained.

In 2000, an inquest was conducted into the death of Mohammed Shafeek, a prison inmate who was found dead in the Brickdam Police Station lockups with marks of violence on his body.

The inquest jury unanimously ruled that the Guyana Police Force should be held criminally responsible for Shafeek’s death, but the police filed a challenge against the inquest ruling.

In 2001, an inquest was ordered into the deaths of robbery suspects John Bruce, Steve Grant, and Adisena Houston, who were shot dead on Mandela Avenue by members of the now-disbanded Target Special Squad (TSS).

Kaieteur News understands that after Chief Magistrate Juliet Holder-Allen was sent on leave, the inquest was transferred to the Providence Magistrate’s Court and is still to be completed.

A police official said that in the case of Buxtonian Tshaka Blair, who was killed by police in 2002, most of the evidence for the inquest has been tendered.

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Backlog of inquests worries senior law official

– cases since 2001 still to be completed

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Backlog of inquests worries senior law official

– cases since 2001 still to be completed

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