The Cybercrime Act and offences

Nov 07, 2021 News

---

By Renay Sambach

Kaieteur News – Cybercrime is the use of a computer to carry out illegal acts. Cybercrimes are usually done with the use of the internet and the different instruments that it has available, and most people are not aware of this Act and the penalties that are attached to offences that fall under this Act.
Guyana’s Cybercrime Bill 2016 was presented by the then Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams. It was published on August 4, 2016. After the Bill was presented to the National Assembly, the proposed Section 18, ‘Sedition,’ had caused a public outcry.
However, on July 20, 2018, the Coalition Government used its majority to pass the Cybercrime Bill with an amendment expunging the controversial sedition clause.
Since the passage of the Bill, numerous persons were charged, put before the court and even convicted.

CYBERCRIME OFFENCES
Cybercrime offences are: illegal access to a computer system, illegal interception, illegal data interference, illegal acquisition of data, illegal system interference, illegal devices, unauthorised granting of access to or giving of electronic data, computer-related forgery, computer-related fraud, offences affecting critical infrastructure, identity-related offences, child pornography, child luring, publication or transmission of image of private area of a person, multiple electronic mail messages and fraudulent website, offences against the State, using a computer system to coerce, harass, intimidate, humiliate, etc., a person, infringement of copyright, patents and designs and trademarks, corporate liability, attempt, aiding or abetting, use of computer system to commit offence under any other law, offences prejudicing investigation.

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
According to Section 2:14, “A person commits an offence if the person intentionally produces child pornography for the purpose of its distribution through a computer system; offers or makes available, distributes or transmits child pornography through a computer system; procures or obtains child pornography through a computer system for himself or another person; or possesses child pornography in a computer system or on a computer data storage medium.”
According to the law, anyone who is found guilty of child pornography at the Magistrate’s Court level, where the matter is tried summarily, will be liable to a fine of $10M and five years’ imprisonment. If the matter is tried indictably and the person is found guilty of child pornography in the High Court, he/she will be liable to a fine of $15M and 10 years imprisonment.

PUBLISHING EXPLICIT PHOTOS/VIDEOS OR REMARKS
Another law under the Cybercrime Act is, “Using a computer to publish or transmit computer data that is obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious or indecent with intent to humiliate, harass or cause substantial emotional distress to another person.”
Anyone who is found guilty of ‘using a computer system to coerce, harass, intimidate, humiliate, etc., a person,’ at the Magistrate’s Court level, will be liable to a fine of $5M and three years’ imprisonment. If the matter is tried indictably and the person is found guilty of child pornography in the High Court, he/she will be liable to a fine of $10M and five years’ imprisonment.
Illegal access to a computer system, illegal interception, illegal data interference, illegal acquisition of data, illegal system interference, and illegal devices, are all offences under the Cybercrime Act. They are also other offences that fall under the Cybercrime Act, which carries from months to years of imprisonment and hefty fines.
Another charge under the Cybercrime Act is the publication or transmission of image of the private area of a person. The law states that a person commits an offence if the person intentionally captures, stores in, publishes or transmits through a computer system, the image of the private area (naked genitals, buttocks or female breasts) of another person without that other person’s consent.
It also outlines that a person who commits an offence is liable, on summary conviction to a fine of $3M and to imprisonment for three years; and on conviction or indictment to a fine of $8 million and to imprisonment for five years.

PERSONS CHARGED UNDER THE ACT
On July 16, 2021, A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Member of Parliament, Annette Ferguson, was placed on self-bail when she appeared before a City Magistrate to answer to a cybercrime charge.
The Opposition MP appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts before Senior Magistrate, Leron Daly. Ferguson denied the charge, which alleges that on June 15, 2021, she used a computer system to transmit data with intent to cause substantial emotional distress to a senior officer of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Colonel Omar Khan.
According to reports, the Opposition MP is charged for falsely alleging in a Facebook post that Khan will be in charge of a ‘killing squad.’ It was reported that Ferguson’s post, which refers to the “setting up of Death Squad and Black Clothes groups,” stemmed from discussions had during the considerations of Financial Paper 2/2021 during a parliamentary session on June 14, 2021.
Also, earlier this year, a Kitty man was charged for allegedly sharing nude photographs of a 16-year-old girl, who refused to have a relationship with him. The defendant, Ryan Seecharran, 33, made his first appearance in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court before Principal Magistrate, Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus. He pleaded not guilty to the charge, which stated that on January 10, 2021, at Kitty, Georgetown, he used a computer system to publish obscene/explicit photographs of the 16-year-old girl via WhatsApp status to humiliate her, causing her substantial emotional distress.
According to reports, Seecharran and the teen are known to each other. It is alleged that on the day in question, Seecharran asked the teen to be in a relationship with her and she turned down his request. This reportedly made him angry and he posted the photographs of her on his WhatsApp status.
The girl had reportedly sent the photographs to one of her female friends, who then shared the photographs with Seecharran. His matter is presently ongoing, but he was released on $300,000 bail.
Not forgetting, during March 2020, 21-year-old, Melissa Ann Pestano and Janelle Williams, 23, were sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined $5M each for sharing a sex tape of their friend on social media.
Pestano, Williams and the victim were friends and they were reportedly very close. Based on reports, Pestano found out that the victim was having an affair with her boyfriend.
After finding out about the affair, Pestano and Williams confronted the victim and later planned to get back at her. It was reported that the women arranged for Pestano’s boyfriend and the victim to book a room at the K&VC International Hotel at South Road, Georgetown. Ten minutes after the two checked into the room, Pestano arrived and was given information about which room they were in. Pestano then entered the room and videoed the sex act.
Pestano had sent a copy of the video to Williams, who then shared the video with several persons. Thereafter, the video was widely circulated on social media. The matter was reported and the women were later arrested and subsequently charged for the offence. They are currently behind bars for sharing the sex tape on social media.

 

---

---