Businessman may spend nine years in Brazilian jail

Aug 19, 2010 News

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Businessman Euclid Da Silva may have to spend the next nine years in a Brazilian jail even as his wife vows to continue to challenge what she described as his unlawful expulsion from Guyana.
Da Silva was handed over to Brazilian authorities on Tuesday, even as his local attorney managed to obtain an order from the High Court to block the move.

Speaking with this newspaper last evening, Rozana Melville said that her husband is in good spirits and has already secured the services of an attorney in the neighbouring country to look into his interest.
Melville told this newspaper that she managed to speak to her husband twice yesterday and through his Brazilian attorney, she learnt that he only has two charges to answer, neither of which is drug-related.
According to Melville, the drug-related matter with which he was initially charged has been settled, and Da Silva now faces charges of failing to declare foreign currency which he was held in Brazil with several years ago. She explained that the charges have to do with tax evasion.
The businessman’s wife said that having already spent two years in prison in Brazil of an 11-year sentence, Da Silva may only have to serve the remaining nine years of his sentence, a situation which his Brazilian attorney is contesting.
Da Silva had returned to Guyana almost a decade ago and had established a business on Hadfield Street.  However, local police are contending that his Guyanese documents are false and were fraudulently obtained.
A senior police official had told this newspaper that they 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.
According to the local police, Da Silva was arrested in Brazil 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, proceeded to send him back to Brazil, where an international warrant had been issued for his arrest.
But according to his wife, the Brazilian authorities informed his attorney that they had never requested Da Silva from their Guyanese counterparts, “since they knew he was a Guyanese.”
“They wanted him, yes, but they never requested that he be sent back to Brazil,” Melville told this newspaper.
She said that she learnt that on Friday last, the Guyanese authorities had contacted the Brazilian federal police and informed them that they had a Brazilian national in their custody.
“They (Brazilians) never knew that it was Euclid,” Melvillle explained.
According to the woman, when the party of policemen escorting her husband to the Guyana/Brazil border was approaching Lethem, they contacted the Brazilian police and informed them that they were bringing the fugitive.
She said that having obtained the Conservatory Order from the High Court to block his expulsion, her attorney Nigel Hughes informed the police of the development.
A relative who was travelling alongside the party was also informed.
She said that at the time they were not worried, since they were of the opinion that the party would have stopped at the Lethem Police Station where they would have been informed about the order.
“They must have known of the order since they sped past the Lethem Police Station. Euclid hollered for them to stop, telling them that an order was granted barring them from talking him across the border. He did everything for them to stop but they did not,” Melville told this newspaper.
The local police eventually handed over Da Silva to the Brazilians at the border town of Bom Fim.
“The local police knew of the order while Euclid was still in Guyana,” the woman asserted.
According to Melville, since her husband escaped from lawful custody in Brazil, the chances of him being returned to Guyana soon are slim.
“I am not giving up. Nigel (Hughes) asked me if I am ready to proceed with legal action and I said yes,” Melville stated.
Attorney Hughes had indicated that he will be lodging a formal protest against the Brazilian government for accepting his client, despite him being in consultation with the Brazilian Consul in Guyana, immediately after obtaining the Conservatory Order.
He indicated that he is also contemplating contempt action against Commissioner of Police Henry Greene who he said was also informed of the order via text message.
Melville maintains that her husband is Guyanese and indicated that they have secured documents to prove this.
“We have his mother’s ID card. We have his school reports from the school he attended in Lethem. The local police never gave us time to prove that he was Guyanese,” the woman said.

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