COI into alleged assassination plot… Lawyers argue over powers to grant bail, credibility of report, as inquiry concludes

Aug 19, 2017 News

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As the curtains closed on the Commission of Inquiry, (COI) into the operations of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) yesterday, lawyers attached to the COI argued over the legality of Police Commissioner, Seelall Persaud to order the release of a suspect, even while he was on leave.
In his closing submission, Chief Justice, (Rtd) Ian Chang, who represented the GPF, noted that although Persaud was on vacation, he was still Commissioner of Police, and therefore it was within his authority and ambit administratively, to direct the officer to grant the suspect, Nizam Khan, bail.
Pointing to the Constitution of Guyana, Chang emphasized that Persaud at all material times, was still Commissioner – even though on annual vacation leave, he had the administrative power and authority to instruct the officer to grant station bail to Nizam Khan, his brother Imran Khan or even Andriff Gillard.
“But, did he instruct? Even if he did, there was more than sufficient factual basis for him to exercise his administrative discretionary power to instruct the grant of station bail,” Chang added.
Additionally, Chang noted that from all indications, Gillard’s allegation appeared to be was nothing but “false statements” born out of malice against Nizam Khan.
“It was the kind of allegation that was easy to make and hard to dispute, but the evidence was inherently unreliable and incredible,” he said. Chang endorsed views that the matter was not treasonous.
He noted that there was no reason why Khan would offer Gillard, a barber and taxi service operator, $7million to kill the President.
“He is not a hitman, we have no evidence of such, the evidence pointed overwhelmingly to a fabricated and concocted story.”
The retired Chief Justice, (CJ), also pointed out that Gillard, a converted Muslim, took the oath using the bible both times he testified before the Commission.
The former CJ questioned the reason Gillard took the Oath on a book that was not binding on his conscience.
“His falsity has no bounds,” Chang declared.
Gillard had reported to the police that there was an alleged plot by East Bank Demerara businessman, Nizam Khan to assassinate President Granger.
He told police that Khan offered him some $7 million to kill the president, shortly after the elections in 2015.
However, he only lodged the complaint with the police in January of this year. Gillard later accused high ranking members of the Guyana Police Force of not taking his report seriously and trying to cover up the matter.
He had first reported the matter to television reporter Travis Chase.
As such, Attorney –at- Law Selwyn Pieter’s, in his representation of the reporter, slammed the hierarchy of the Police Force for what he viewed as their unprofessional conduct.
He expressed the view that Commissioner Persaud had not acted professionally and that he (Persaud) interfered with police investigations by instructing Inspector Prem Narine to place the suspect on bail.
Pieters held that in other parts of the world, the Commissioner would have been arrested and charged for obstructing an investigation.
He noted too that Persaud did not have enough professional courtesy to call the acting Commissioner David Ramnarine on the issue.
“He granted the man no professional courtesy. He is calling all the persons below Ramnarine, but not Ramnarine.
You cannot have, Sir, in our respectful submission, looked at that very lightly. The Guyana Police Force cannot be allowed to run like that, where you have a Commissioner of Police not speaking to the second-in-command on very important issues,” Pieters told Commissioner Paul Slowe, a retired member of the Force, yesterday.
Meanwhile, Attorney -at –law, Glen Hanoman, who represented Persaud during the inquiry, noted that from all appearances the Police Commissioner had lost confidence in his Assistant (Ramnarine) owing to his alleged involvement in a number of questionable issues in the past.
During his testimony before the Commission, Ramnarine admitted that he had faced investigations that reached the Office of Professional Responsibility, based on allegations that he had granted 113 firearm licenses while he had previously acted as Police Commissioner.
Hanoman stressed too that by his own admission, Assistant Commissioner Ramnarine could not speak to the efficiency of the investigation, since he has no training as a policeman in the matters of investigations.
The lawyer expressed the view, therefore, that Ramnarine was not properly advised when he briefed the President on the investigation into the alleged plot.
With the closing arguments presented yesterday, Commissioner Paul Slowe is slated to hand over a report to the government on his findings within the coming weeks.

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