Fugitive businessman transferred to maximum security prison in Brazil

Aug 20, 2010 News

Businessman Euclid Da Silva, who was handed over to Brazilian authorities on Tuesday has been transferred to a maximum security prison on the Brazilian border with Colombia.
Kaieteur News has learnt that Da Silva was flown by aircraft from his initial holding facility in Boa Vista to the present location at Rondonia, Porto Velho, midnight Wednesday.
According to his anxious wife, Rozanna Melville, not even his Brazilian attorney was aware of the move.
Da Silva was arrested last Monday by local police on suspicion that he was a Brazilian who was in possession of false Guyana documents.
He was wanted in Brazil after escaping from lawful custody there almost nine years ago while serving an 11-year sentence.
But despite efforts to prove that he is indeed a Guyanese, the local lawmen whisked him away to the border although a court order was obtained to block his expulsion.
Local police are claiming that Da Silva was already handed over to their Brazilian counterparts before the order was actually served.
Melville said that Da Silva’s Brazilian lawyer and her son, who had travelled with his father on the way to Brazil, went to visit him yesterday and to their surprise they learnt that he had been transferred to the maximum facility prison.
“The lawyer questioned them (Brazilian prison officials) they could not provide him with any positive information,” Melville said, adding that because her husband was a Guyanese, the Brazilian authorities had stripped him of any of his prisoner’s rights.
The woman said that as far as she is aware, the Brazilian authorities are mandated to inform Da Silva’s attorney or a close relative about the move.
She said that she fears for her husband’s life since all contact with him has now been severed.
“I asked the lawyer if my husband was alive and if he spoke to him and he said no,” Melville told Kaieteur News.
According to Melville, Da Silva’s Brazilian attorney is desperately trying to have him brought back to Boa Vista to serve his time.
“We have to fight to bring him back to Guyana and now his lawyer has to fight to bring him back to Boa Vista,” she lamented. She blames the local police for her present predicament.
“Everything started from here. The police here have to tell me about my husband,” Melville stated. This newspaper understands that Da Silva’s local attorney Nigel Hughes has contacted the Brazilian Consulate over the most recent development.
“They too have to give account for my husband. I want to hear from him.
From the beginning, the lawyer in Brazil told me that he would have a hard time with the case since Euclid was a Guyanese. I want to know what they did to my husband,” the businessman’s distraught wife told this newspaper.
News of Da Silva’s handing over to the Brazilians has been one of the main items being carried by a large section of the Brazilian media.
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Cyclist run over by truck

The impounded truck

Ronald Gadrinauth

Forty-seven year-old Ronald Gadrinauth, of Richmond Village, Essequibo Coast, died on the Anna Regina Public Road after he was run over by a truck yesterday at around 15:30 hrs.
The vehicle was reportedly being driven by a 64-year-old man of Zorg, Essequibo Coast. The driver has since been detained.
According to a police report, Gadrinauth, a security guard, was riding his cycle to his work site at Regional Chairman Alli Baksh’s residence at Cotton Field.
The report further stated that the motor lorry which was transporting water was proceeding south along the Eastern side of the Anna Regina Public Road, whilst the cyclist was heading in the opposite direction, on the same side.
The driver reportedly told police officers that as he was about to pass the cyclist he heard a thudding sound against his truck and he subsequently ventured out of the vehicle where he saw a man lying motionless on the road, in a pool of blood.
Gadrinauth was pronounced dead on arrival at the Suddie Public Hospital.
When this newspaper visited the deceased man’s wife at his Richmond home she was inconsolable as many neighbours had already gathered to offer condolences.
His 69-year- old mother, Nandraine Doodnauth , who was sobbing uncontrollably said she saw when her son left for work at around 14:30 hrs yesterday.
She described him as a very quiet and hard working man who had his family interest at heart.
Gadrinauth leaves to mourn his wife, Roxanne and two daughters, Karishma and Latchminie.