Muslim scholar, sacked teacher could be tried soon for rape, sexual activity

Jan 14, 2019 News

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There have been numerous calls for justice by the relatives of the nine boys who were allegedly raped by Muslim scholar Nezaam Ali.
It appears that those appeals might be realized as Ali is listed to go on trial at the current session of the Demerara Criminal Assizes.
Ali faces nine counts of rape and sexual activity with a child by abusing a position of trust respectively, according to information published by the Registrar of the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Jackson, a former teacher at the Bishops’ High School is to face a judge and jury for the offence of sexual activity with a child by abusing a position of trust.
However, there seems to be some hiccups that are causing a delay in Ali’s trial.
Kaieteur News was informed that Justice Jo-Ann Barlow, who has been rostered to sit in the sexual offences court this session, is privy to Ali’s case since she advised on them during her tenure at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution.
This newspaper also learnt that this was also the situation at the last session of the Assizes in which Ali’s matters were slated to come up before Justice Barlow, who had been presiding over the sexual offences court where she heard several trials.
In those circumstances, the judge has to recuse herself. Though it is unclear whether Ali’s case could be heard before one of two other judges sitting this session, Ali’s matters could be shifted to the April in the Demerara Criminal Assizes where the possibility lies that another judge, besides Barlow, could be assigned to the Sexual Offences Court.
In 2013, Ali, also known as ‘Mufti’, an Imam, whose last known address is said to at South, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, was committed to stand trial at the High Court for the offence after the conclusion of a preliminary inquiry before Magistrate Alex Moore.
According to reports, Ali is alleged to have sexually assaulted the nine boys, who were all under the age of 12, when they usually go to take Quran and Arabic lessons from him at a Masjid on the East Coast of Demerara.
The virtual complainants allege that Ali had anal intercourse with them.
He is alleged to have committed the crime between December 2011 and January 2012. Shortly after, Ali, through his lawyer Nigel Hughes, moved to the High Court asking that the committal be quashed.
His application was made on several grounds, including that the Magistrate acted in excess of his jurisdiction when he failed to consider the expert opinion of Dr. Walter Ramsahoye, who testified that it was impossible for the accused (Ali) to commit the act, since he is impotent.
According to court documents, Dr. Ramsahoye testified that “the individual whose psychological systems are severely compromised, cannot have sex with boy, girl, man or woman as he cannot have an erection.”
However, the police prosecutor submitted that the doctor’s opinion was formed from information provided by Ali, and was not one, which came as result of doctors treating and attending to a medical condition, which Ali suffered, over a period of time.
Last year, the cases were sent back to the Magistrates’ Courts based on directive of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). It was reported that the medical reports and birth certificates of the nine boys involved in the case had allegedly disappeared.
In addition to remitting the matter to the Magistrate Alex Moore to re-open the paper committals, the DPP also issued a directive to the Guyana Police Force to obtain certified copies of the original documents.
The files were eventually reconstructed and the matter placed before the Magistrate’s Court. In the end, Ali was once again committed to stand trial.
Last year May, Jackson was committed to stand trial for the sexual activity with an underage girl, one of his former students. It is alleged that the offence occurred between December 2010 and May 2011, at D’Urban Street, Lodge.
According to information, an investigation was launched after a former student of Jackson filed a report alleging that she had sexual contact with the teacher while she was still a child.
The accusation against Jackson was first brought to the fore by Cultural Policy Advisor within the Ministry of Social Cohesion, Ruel Johnson. Jackson retained legal representation and denied the allegations of sexual abuse of students under his instruction.
Johnson, in a letter of complaint to Chief Education Officer, Mr. Marcel Hutson, suggested that Jackson had been sexually abusing female students for many years. Johnson alleged that the stories of abuse started in the late 1990s, beginning at another city secondary school, and followed Jackson’s career through attachments at several other high schools.
The complaint had forced the Education Ministry into investigation mode sending Jackson on administrative leave to facilitate the investigation. At the end of the process, the findings were sufficient to warrant a police investigation.
Both Ali and Jackson are out on bail pending trials.

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