Wife, accomplice appeal conviction for US citizen’s murder

Mar 18, 2018 News

The two women including the wife of the American citizen who is also a US citizen has filed a notice of appeal or application for leave to appeal against conviction or sentence under Section 12 of the Court of Appeal Act.

Murdered: Abdool Shakeel Majid

The two women are Hemwattie Abdulla, 43, called “Anita Nazeema Khan,” formerly of Albion Corentyne and of Ozone Park, New York, USA; and her accomplice, Surojinie Tirmaul, 49, of Belvedere New Housing Scheme, Corentyne, Berbice.
They were convicted of murdering Abdool Shakeel Majid, called “Shakiel,” a citizen of the USA, between April 23 and April 27, 2012 in Berbice. There was an arrangement whereby Surojinie Tirmaul called “Surojnie” and “Usha” paid money to a third person, Pooran Jhadoo, at the request of Hemwattie Abdulla called “Annie” and “Anesa”. Tirmaul was reportedly paid US$5000 to hire somebody to kill Majid.
Prominent Attorneys-at-law Nigel Hughes and Mursalene Bacchus filed their appeals, in association with Attorney Arud Gossai.
Bacchus and Gossai are representing the Number One accused, Abdulla, while Hughes is representing Tirmaul.
Attorney at Law Ganesh Hira was the Special Prosecutor in the case.
They were found guilty by a mixed 12-member jury sitting in the Berbice High Court before Justice Sadil Kissoon on March 13, 2018. However, after the women were found guilty Justice Kissoon postponed sentencing to March 29, pending probation reports.
In their applications, which are similar, the women stated that they are giving notice that they desire to appeal to the Court of Appeal against their conviction on a number of grounds.
That the learned judge ought not to have admitted the caution statements signed by the Appellants into evidence in as much as the prosecution did not prove that they were free and voluntary.
The judge applied the wrong and/or no principles of law in ruling that the statements were admissible.
The judge seemed to have put the burden of proof of the admissibility of the statements on the appellants.
The Learned trial judge erred in law when he rejected the “no case” submissions of counsels for the appellants.
The summing up was un-balanced in favour of the prosecution.
The Learned Judge did not deal adequately with the defence.

Convicted: Hemwattie Abdulla, 43, (right) and Surojinie Tirmaul, 49, in court.

Inadmissible evidence prejudicial to the appellants was wrongly admitted by the judge.
The judge erred in law when he refused to stop the trial and stay the proceedings when the pre-trial publicity prevented a fair trial.
The state during the trial called 13 witnesses including a number of policemen. Caution statements reportedly made by both women that implicated them both in the crime were admitted into evidence. The defence had objected strongly to the admission of the statements and a lengthy voir dire was held. At the conclusion of prosecution case, both women gave unsworn statement from the dock proclaiming their innocence.
Mr. Bacchus when asked had stated that he would abide by the verdict of the court on his client Abdulla. Mr. Hughes made a stirring plea of mitigation on behalf of his client, Trimaul. Prosecutor Hira in his address said that the women’s actions were ruthless. He said from the autopsy reports, Majid would have endured a painful death. Hira lamented that from the women’s caution statements, they were equally culpable. Their actions were well planned.
He asked for that the maximum sentence, either death or life imprisonment.
The prosecution case was that around 07:40 hrs on April 27, the body of a man was found with his scalp missing and other injuries to his body on the No. 56 Village, Corentyne foreshore.
The remains were only identified on May 16, 2014, when a brother visited Guyana after becoming suspicious about the wife’s behaviour.
Police were able to crack the case after the woman, who had returned to the United States when the man went missing, returned to Guyana from the United States and reported to the New Amsterdam Police Station to identify her slain husband’s body after he was found.
It was also reported that an official from the US Embassy was present in court.

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