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Unbearable conditions force witnesses to flee

Sep 23, 2010 News

… Govt. witness protection programme

They thought that they would have been well taken care of by the state but now witnesses in the C.N. Sharma carnal knowledge case are condemning the prison-like conditions in which they are being housed.
Such is the condition that two of the witnesses who are under the protection of the state, staged a daring escape from the facility in which they are being housed.
For more than three months, the witnesses, all females, the oldest being 21 years old and a mother of two, have been housed at an unknown destination after the authorities discovered that they were being approached to compromise their testimony in the case involving television owner Chandra Narine Sharma.
According to reports, the witnesses are all being housed in one room with very little space, in conditions slightly less harsh than a prison cell.
They are being guarded by female police officers on a rotating shift basis, an arrangement which renders them no better than prisoners.
Kaieteur News has learnt that the witnesses are hardly allowed out of the room and this has put paid to any desire for the children to attend school.
In fact, one of the infant children has not been registered at a clinic and therefore cannot access proper health care.
A relative of the witnesses told this newspaper that from all appearances, the administration is paying very little attention to the welfare of the witnesses who have been kept under the witness protection programme at the instigation of the Ministry of Human Services.
According to the relative, the eldest of the witnesses has complained of not being able to contact her mother in months, since they are being denied access to telephone calls.
“These people did not ask for protection; it is the government who offered them,” the relative told this newspaper. Three days ago two of the witnesses assaulted the female guard and walked out of the facility.
However, quick action by the police led to their recapture a short distance away.

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