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17 years on death row… Is he really guilty?

Dec 19, 2010 News

Following what many considered a controversial trial in the High Court, a jury convicted Hafiz Hussein and three other accused of the murder of Aubrey Ramsammy, called Arnold.
Hussein and another accused, Vinikanand Singh, were both sentenced to death by Justice Claudette Singh and without hesitation they both appealed their convictions.
Hussein was again represented by attorney at law Mursalene Bacchus.
Hearing the appeal were then Chancellor, Cecil Kennard and Justices Prem Persaud and Lennox Perry.
Initially, everything seemed to be going in favour of the convicted men.
According to Boy Blue who followed the case, all three appeal court judges initially felt that there was something wrong with the whole matter beginning from the men’s arrest to their conviction.
“Perry said that the matter was concocted from the police stage; Prem Persaud said that the matter was well framed while Kennard hinted that the matter appeared to have been fabricated from the start,” Boy Blue recalled.
As the appeal process went on, the convicts were convinced that they could prepare to go home to their families. In fact they began preparing themselves for this by packing their belongings in prison as the day of the decision drew near.
But they got the shock of their lives when the appeal court upheld the decision of the High Court and affirmed the convictions.
Those close to the matter are of the opinion that there was some amount of political pressure that led to the state of affairs.
Boy Blue is convinced that a relative of the deceased had made contact with a top political figure to secure the men’s convictions.
He claimed that during the appeal process, he had visited the Court of Appeal and was shown the judge’s notes by the typist who was in the process of preparing it for the appeal.
“The typist was typing the notes and there were some scratches to the judge’s notes. The clerk showed me the changes to key words like ‘certainty’ and ‘not sure’,” Boy Blue told this newspaper.
He said that he had pointed this out to Hussein’s lawyer who raised it during the appeal hearing.
It is not too clear what effect the decision of the Appeal Court had on the court, but two weeks later, Justice Prem Persaud retired.
Hussein’s fate was finally sealed and since the Court of Appeal was the final court of jurisprudence in Guyana at the time, he did not have redress to the Caribbean Court of Justice as is the case now.
It was left up to Boy Blue to write to the United Nations to stay his hanging.
“They were even trying to get people from Trinidad to carry out the hanging,” Boy Blue said.
After sending all the correspondences required to the United Nations, the body replied one year later.
The UN had advised that the Death Row convicts be freed within 62 days but of course the advice was not heeded.
It is now left to the Committee for the Prerogative of Mercy to influence any change in Hussein’s status.
And his relatives are hoping that since President Bharrat Jagdeo will be demitting office next year, one of his final acts will be to free the man who they are convinced is innocent of the crime for which he was convicted.
This series of articles is not in any way proclaiming Hussein’s innocence but it was just looking at some of the facts and opinions presented by residents of the Black Bush Polder area, 17 years after one of the most controversial events in their community.

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