Three ‘life’ prisoners released on parole

Dec 03, 2019 News

Three inmates who were serving life sentences have been released on parole after consideration by the Parole Board. Kaieteur News understands that the Parolees are the Vaux brothers (Kornel and Daniel) and Lallman Dulai, all of whom were serving time for murder. Dulai‘s brother Bharatraj was also scheduled to be released, but he died in prison.
The men’s supervised release, following their appearance before the Parole Board last month, was recommended to the Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan. The men were initially sentenced to death, but their sentences were commuted to life by former Chief Justice Ian Chang. The Vaux brothers were arrested and charged with the July 1993 murder of Baiwant Jaikissoon, an airport worker. They were subsequently sentenced to death after being convicted for the murder on December 19, 1997.
The Dulais were sentenced to death for the 1992 murder of Doodnauth Seeram at Mahaica Creek. The Court of Appeal set aside the death sentence and ordered a retrial in 1995. Again the Dulais were convicted and sentenced to death a year later.
They appealed their conviction to the Court of Appeal of Guyana, and their appeal was dismissed on December 7, 2000. The men, however, later had their convictions commuted to life imprisonment.
Back in 2013, the prisoners were taken off Death Row after a ruling was made by then Chief Justice Ian Chang.
The main reason offered was that the men had been on Death Row for too long and to execute them then would be inhumane treatment. Their stay on Death Row for such a prolonged period meant that they had served a life sentence and to hang them would be to punish them twice, the Chief Justice had said.
What was tested in the case was the provision in Article 39 (2) (introduced in 2001) of the Constitution, which stipulates that in the interpretation of the fundamental rights provisions in the Constitution, a court is to pay due regard to international law, international conventions, covenants and charters bearing on human rights.
The ruling followed several requests to the government for information on the case in April 1998, December 1998, December 2000, August 2001 and March 2003 which went unanswered; the United Nations Human Rights Committee concluded in August 2004 that the brothers’ trial had been unfair and recommended “an effective remedy, including commutation of their death sentences.
For a number of years the International Human Rights Commission has been plugging for the abolition of the death penalty in many countries. It described the death penalty as barbaric.

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