Bisram gets more time to fight extradition

Aug 08, 2017 News

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The court battle in the US to bring back Guyanese-born murder accused, Marcus Bisram, is heating up, with the businessman being granted more time to counter the initial case that has been filed against him.
Through his lawyers, Bisram last week ask New York judge, Peggy Kuo, for more time to file what is called an Opposition to the Pretrial Memorandum in Support of Extradition.
Last month, he was granted an extension to August 4 (last Friday). However, Bisram, who is in jail awaiting the outcome of the proceedings, is asking for more time.
A status conference set for tomorrow has been rescheduled for September 5.
Bisram is fighting against a 1931 extradition treaty signed with Great Britain, that could see him being successfully sent back to face a murder trial in Guyana.
According to court documents filed last month by state attorneys on behalf of the Department of Justice, the applicable provisions between the United States and Guyana are found in the Extradition Treaty between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of December 22, 1931.
Bisram was refused bail early last month after he appeared before Judge Kuo in a Brooklyn court, New York.
On November 1, last year, the battered body of 26-year-old carpenter Faiyaz Narinedatt was found on a roadway in Number 70 Village, Corentyne. His death was said to have been staged to look like a hit-and-run accident and two cops in Berbice were fingered in the cover-up.
It was reported that the father of two was killed after an argument at a function attended by Bisram and friends, then taken elsewhere and dumped to make it appear as a hit-and-run.
It was alleged that Bisram, a wealthy businessman who has been donating to charities in Guyana, had purportedly made sexual advances on the carpenter but was rebuffed. He reportedly ordered the carpenter to be beaten after the rejection.
It was after ranks from the Guyana Police Force’s Major Crimes Unit took over the investigation that Harripaul Parsram, 49, Orlando Dickie, 39, Radesh Motie, 39, Diadath Datt, 18 and Niran Yacoob, 37, were charged for the murder.
Additionally, three individuals, including Bisram’s mother, were charged for allegedly offering a detective $4M to suppress evidence against Bisram.
Last month, a tearful Pooja Pitam, wife of Narinedatt, was in court when Bisram was arraigned. She told American news outfit CBS afterwards that she wanted justice and that her little daughter, one of two children with the dead man, was born after he was laid to rest.
In the US court, Bisram, despite lawyering up, failed to persuade the judge that he should be allowed his freedom pending the extradition hearing. This is because Bridget Rohde, Acting United States Attorney, made it clear that there was no guarantee that he would not flee.
Rohde, in her submissions for Bisram to be kept in custody, explained that the Government of Guyana requested formally for the US to extradite Bisram, a fugitive from Guyana, pursuant to the Extradition Treaty between the US and Great Britain..
It was disclosed that Bisram was arrested on July 4, 2017, based on a complaint and warrant issued by Judge James C. Francis IV, a New York judge, since June 16, 2017, seeking his extradition to Guyana.
She made it clear that the Secretary of State, and not the courts, makes the final determination whether the fugitive should ultimately be surrendered to the requesting country.
“Accordingly, at an extradition hearing, the court considers the evidence presented on behalf of the requesting country—here, Guyana—and adjudges whether the legal requirements for certification of extraditability have been established.”
It was pointed out that the inability of the US to deliver a fugitive who jumped bail would cause them “serious embarrassment.”
Accordingly, “release on bail in extradition cases should be an unusual and extraordinary thing.”
With regards to Bisram fleeing Guyana after the murder last October, the court documents said that in doing so, Bisram has demonstrated that he is highly capable of moving to avoid prosecution.
“Moreover, based on information gathered by the United States Marshals about Bisram, it appears that he has the financial means to further flee from the United States to yet another country or to hide in this country were he to be released. Bisram also has a strong incentive to flee due to the seriousness of the offense with which he is charged in Guyana.”
The arrest had come days after relatives complained to Kaieteur News that the authorities seemed not too keen to extradite Bisram from the US to face the courts.

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