Fugitive handed over to Brazilian Feds at border

Aug 18, 2010 News

---

…despite relatives obtaining court order to block expulsion

By Dale Andrews

The family of a businessman, through their attorney Nigel Hughes, is in the process of lodging a formal protest to the Brazilian government over what is being described as his illegal removal from Guyana.
The businessman, Euclid Da Silva, who operates a business on Hadfield Street, was yesterday handed over to Brazilian authorities by the local police.
Da Silva is wanted by the Brazilian authorities for unlawfully escaping from custody, while serving a lengthy prison sentence.
But his lawyer had moved to the High Court to prevent his expulsion from Guyana on the grounds that he was a legitimate Guyanese.
However, despite an order by Chief Justice Ian Chang to block his expulsion, the local law enforcement authorities released him into the custody of the Brazilian Federal Police.
Attorney Nigel Hughes has indicated that he will also be seeking a motion of contempt against the Commissioner of Police.
Da Silva was first arrested on Friday but was released on $100,000 bail by the local police who told him that they were investigating his status in Guyana.
The man’s wife, Rozana Melville, told Kaieteur News that at no time did the local police indicate that they were planning to return him to neighbouring Brazil.
She said that this is despite Da Silva, who also goes by the name of Euclid Saigo, insisting that he was Guyanese by birth.
“My husband is a Guyanese. He born at Annai and his mother is Maria Joseph. His father is Milton Saigo, Guyanese, all from the Rupununi.
She related that she met Da Silva around 1990 in Brazil, where she was residing after fleeing the Rupununi in the wake of the 1969 uprising.
Melville explained that Da Silva managed to obtain Brazilian papers through his mother who was married to a Brazilian. “He never take out a Brazilian passport, he only take out an ID.”

She said that they cohabitated in Boa Vista where their first two children were born. Their third child was born in Guyana.
Several years ago, Da Silva was accused of transporting cash for the head of a Brazilian drug cartel and was imprisoned.
“When they held him they say that the money was counterfeit and they locked him up. He managed to get away and come back home. Since then he never went back to Brazil.”
Melville said that after returning to Guyana, Da Silva secured his Guyana birth certificate and subsequently a passport.
The local police are contending that the documents are false.
According to a senior police official, the police had apprehended Da Silva on suspicion that he was in possession of ‘false documents’. They later learnt that he was a fugitive from Brazil, after contacting their counterparts in the neighbouring country.
The official said that Da Silva was arrested in 1998 on drug trafficking and money laundering charges, but later escaped from custody after being sentenced to 29 years in prison.
Local police, acting on their belief that Da Silva did not prove that he was Guyanese, then commenced preparations to send him back to Brazil where an international warrant had been issued for his arrest.
In an exclusive interview with Kaieteur News yesterday, Rozana Melville said that on Friday, a man went to their business place – E&S Service Centre on Hadfield Street – and enquired about a vehicle that they had for sale.
At the time her husband was not at the business but the man insisted that he meet with him to discuss the purchase.
When Da Silva arrived, four men in a car drove into the compound of the business and informed him that they were there to collect him.
Melville said that her husband recognized one of the men as a policeman and freely decided to go with them to CID Headquarters, Eve Leary, since he was convinced that he had done nothing wrong.
There he was accused of being a Brazilian and being in possession of false Guyana documents.
Melville said that she subsequently took her husband’s passport and showed it to the police but he was only released late Friday night after posting $100,000 bail.
On Saturday morning, Da Silva returned to Eve Leary as per instructions, and was held for several hours before being sent away with instructions to return the following day.
On Sunday he was again instructed to return the following day, which he did.
It was only on Monday that the police informed him that he would be taken to Lethem. He still was not told the real purpose of him being taken there.
Meanwhile, family members and friends began mobilizing to prove to the local police that Da Silva was indeed a Guyanese in an effort to prevent him from being expelled.
Nevertheless, on Monday at around midday, Da Silva was placed into a pick-up with several policemen and started his journey to the border location.
At this point, Melville said she contacted her attorney Nigel Hughes, since she believed that her husband’s rights, according to article 148 of the Constitution, which provides that every person enjoys the right of immunity from expulsion from Guyana, would be violated.
“Euclid Da Silva has not been charged with any offence related to his passport or any immigration offence,” Melville stated in her affidavit to support the Conservatory Order that she had sought.
According to attorney at law Hughes, after meeting with Melville on Monday, he decided to move to the court for the Conservatory Order.
“She said that the police were trying to send her husband to Brazil. Her husband has a Guyana passport which the police have in their custody. He has a Guyana birth certificate,” Hughes told this newspaper.
He said that he immediately dispatched a letter to the Commissioner of Police on Monday afternoon, pointing out that his client was a Guyanese and he could not be expelled from the country, since it would be a breach of his fundamental rights.
Hughes said that on Monday afternoon, he learnt that the police were taking Da Silva to the Guyana/Brazil border.
“This morning (yesterday) we made an application to the court and the Chief Justice granted an order stopping Mr. Da Silva from leaving the country. As soon as the Chief Justice granted the order, I texted the Commissioner of Police and told him that the order had been granted. I also wrote to him and carbon copied that letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Director of Public Prosecutions. The order was then entered. We notified the Brazilian Consul, who invited me to come in and see him. The order was then served on the Commissioner of Police,” Hughes explained.
He subsequently met with the Brazilian Consul and gave him a copy of the order and informed that “Despite the order, he (Da Silva) was unlawfully removed in violation to the order”.
According to Hughes, the Brazilian Consul indicated that he was going to contact his principals in Brasilia.
Hughes said that he also sent an e-mail to the Guyana Consul in Boa Vista and sent her a copy of the court order to, “request her intervention to notify the federals that this man had been unlawfully removed from Guyana and that he is a Guyanese citizen”.
Hughes said that at the time the order was granted Da Silva was still in Guyana.
“We knew that he was still in Guyana when the order was granted,” said Hughes, indicating the time that he sent the text to the police commissioner, which was 12:31hours yesterday.
Hughes explained that Da Silva’s wife was in communication with her son who was travelling with the
party to Lethem.
The businessman’s wife told Kaieteur News that she even contacted Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai, who assured that they had enough time to file for the Conservatory Order to prevent Da Silva from being sent to Brazil.
Kaieteur News understands that yesterday a party of concerned residents had gathered at the Lethem Police Station where they hoped to make representation that Da Silva was indeed a Guyanese.
However the party transporting the businessman sped past the Lethem Police Station and drove across the border where they handed him over to the Brazilian authorities.
Within an hour of his handing over to the Federals, the Brazilain media reported that Da Silva, who they described a fugitive from justice, was captured in Guyana and returned to Brazil.
Hughes is now moving to the next step which involves an official protest to the Brazilian government and the contempt motion against Police Commissioner Henry Greene.

---

---