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Prisoners concerned over delayed trials…‘If we don’t pay police passage we don’t go to court’
The issue of prisoners being on remand for lengthy periods and having little time in court has been a longstanding issue, and relevant authorities seem to be doing little or nothing about it.
As such, prisoners who are brought to court, just to be given another date for their trials, have been voicing their complaints, which seem to be falling on deaf ears.
This has been the plea of four prisoners from the Essequibo Coast for the past two years. The four men, Dyal Singh of Supenaam, Jainait Lall of Devonshire Castle, Rajesh Rahaman of Anna Regina, and Petamber of Queenstown, say they are frustrated with the situation.
With the exception of Petamber, all the men are on murder charges. Petamber is behind bars for attempted murder.
Singh has been incarcerated since October 2007, Lall since August 2007, Rahaman since September 2006, and Petamber since August of last year. During a recent court appearance, the men, whose cases are being heard in the Essequibo magisterial district, were only given new dates, following a brief appearance at the Georgetown Magistrates Court. However, according to the men, they were initially scheduled to appear at the Anna Regina Magistrate’s Court for their last court appearance. This was, however, not done, and the men say this has been the case for their past few appearances.
“Every time we got to go to court in Essequibo, dem police does bring we here (Georgetown Magistrates’ Court) and de magistrate does just give we new dates.”
“Even when de new date reaches is de same thing; dem does bring we back to de court and we get another date,” the men related.
The men say they are all aware that their offences are not bailable at this point, but they believe that the least the authorities can do is grant them speedy trials.
“We got family, we got businesses and houses like everybody else, but we ain’t deh fuh tek care ah we thing,” one of the men lamented. Another lamented that by the time his preliminary inquiry is completed, his wife may be gone.
The prisoners further complained that on the occasions when they were taken to the Anna Regina Magistrate’s Court, they were made to pay their own passage as well as that of the police ranks escorting them.
“When we go back to prison and we tell dem (the prison authorities) we new date, de police does call and tell we that we must tell we family that we got to get money to travel to Essequibo.”
The prisoners claim that when their families fail to come up with the money, they are taken to the Georgetown Court instead of the Anna Regina Magistrate’s Court.
During the quartet’s last appearance at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, last Tuesday, they voiced their grievances to the sitting magistrate, only to be daunted.
As their names were called by Magistrate Priya Beharry, the men opted to air their concerns, but were told that that was not the forum for that. As such, the men just listened to their new dates being set, and calmly made their way out of the court room.
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