Latest update November 23rd, 2024 1:00 AM
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Guyana waiting on US to send evidence – COP
Roger Khan investigation…
Commissioner of Police, Henry Green, has said that the Guyana Police Force will have to wait and see what course of action the US will take as it relates to the promised evidence that was gathered on convicted drug trafficker, Roger Khan.
Shaheed Roger Khan
When asked if the force will be making contact with the embassy in an effort to expedite the matter, he reiterated that, “we would have to wait and see,” before deciding on a course of action.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Alliance for Change, Khemraj Ramjattan, stated that the documentation that was made available in the court, as it relates to court transcripts, is available and there need not be a wait for anything.
He noted that the Guyana embassy officials in the US could go to the courts in New York and get the information for a fee.
Ramjattan, however, believes that there may be a problem as a result of the plea bargain arrangement that Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan made with the US government, given that most of the evidence was not presented in open court.
According to Ramjattan, it may depend on who the evidence implicates in Guyana that would determine what, if any, evidence will be released to the Guyana Police Force.
In light of Khan’s sentencing, many in the political, social and other spheres now believe that the Guyana Police Force, more so its Commissioner, is at critical point to demonstrate a commitment and take a proactive stance towards the promised investigation.
Khan will spend 15 years behind bars in the US because the sentences on the three counts will run concurrently.
Attorney-at-Law Khemraj Ramjattan
He was sentenced to 10 years on a 16-year-old US gun charge; 15 years on the witness tampering charge; and another 15 years for his drug-related charges.
Following appeals, locally, by many but more vociferously in the opposition political strata, the government through the Guyana Police Force had requested evidence from the US Government on Khan’s illegal activities.
However, the US Government responded by saying that the evidence will be provided at the conclusion of Khan’s court hearings.
Recently, Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform, (PNCR), Robert Corbin, lashed out at statements by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, who stated that the police preferred to wait on the relevant documentation to proceed with an investigation into the alleged link between Khan and government officials.
According to Corbin, while the information available on the US federal website, namely PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) was a representation of the official documents and could not be tendered in a court, the police or any interested party, on the basis of what is uploaded, could proceed to the relevant authorities to obtain the certified copies that could be used as evidence.
He believes that there is an obvious unwillingness by the Guyana Police Force since they did not have to wait for the conclusion of anything, as the documents are already in the public domain.
Ramjattan had also denounced Dr Luncheon’s pronouncement saying that it illustrated the total contempt for the Guyanese people by the administration.
He added that the information being posted on the PACER website provides a wealth of circumstantial evidence that could be built upon by local police.
Commissioner of Police Henry
Ramjattan also drew reference to when the CIA declassified documents as it relates to Arthur Schlesinger that could have been used to the advantage of the People’s Progressive Party.
“They ran and got it and used it as evidence, telling the Guyanese people what the US did in Guyana and to Cheddi (Jagan) in the 1960s.”
According to Ramjattan, the current documents on the internet are even more credible, given that they were all presented before a jury, witnesses testified and were cross examined, and the jury believed what was presented before it.
“When it suits them they go all out and get it…but now that these documents don’t suit them they don’t want to touch it, not even with a 40-foot pole.”
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