CCJ grants leave for Neesa Gopaul’s mother to appeal conviction

Dec 05, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – Special leave has been granted to Bibi Sharima-Gopaul, the woman who was convicted and sentenced for the murder of her 16-year-old daughter, Neesa Gopaul, in 2016.

Convicted: Bibi Sharima-Gopaul

According to documents seen by this newspaper, Gopaul through her attorney Arud Gossai have approach the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in a bid to overturn her conviction which was upheld by the Guyana Appeal Court last August.The murder convict has been granted special leave to appeal the conviction and her jail sentence by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
The court’s decision was based on a Notice of Application for Special Leave to appeal the decision of Guyana’s Court of Appeal of Guyana, which on August 31, 2021, upheld the convictions of Sharima-Gopaul and her co-accused, Jarvis Small. The two had their sentences significantly reduced from the collective 206 years sentence to 45 years each.

Murdered: Neesa Gopaul

Last August, the Appeal Court bench led by Chancellor of the Judiciary (Ag) Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, Justices of Appeal Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory, delivered the ruling on the duo’s application to have their conviction and combined 206 years jail sentence set aside.
While the Court found no reason upon which their conviction could be set aside, it held that Trial Judge, Navindra Singh, erred in imposing the lengthy jail sentences. As such, the court substituted the 106 years jail sentence handed to Gopaul, 50, and the 96 years jail sentence imposed on her younger ex-lover, Small, to 45 years imprisonment each.

Additionally, the murder convicts were given no credit for time spent in pre-trial custody given the aggravating circumstances in the case. Rather, Justice Cummings-Edwards, underscored the gruesome manner in which the victim who was only 16 when she met her demise, this included the extent of the injuries she received, the manner in which her body was disposed of and the fact that she was killed by persons close to her.
On October 2, 2010, the partially decomposed body of the teenager who attended Queen’s College was found stuffed into a suitcase, which was anchored in a creek with several dumbbells at the Emerald Tower Resort at Madewini, Soesdyke-Linden Highway.

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