Court Journal: Extradition

Apr 30, 2023 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

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By: Renay Sambach

Kaieteur News –The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has vowed to use all legal avenues to get the couple reportedly involved in the murder of Police Constable Quincy Lewis, extradited to Guyana.

Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or is convicted of a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other’s law enforcement officials. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdictions and depends on the arrangements made between them.

On Monday April 24, 25-year-old Shafeek Vernon called “Profit” of Ogle, East Coast Demerara (ECD) and 35-year-old Jamel Van Lewis, of Durban Street, Georgetown were remanded to prison for the murder of the cop.

On that same date, Senior Magistrate Leron Daly issued arrest warrants for the alleged masterminds, Thakurdial Samaroo, 56, of Lot 7 Ogle Front Road, East Coast Demerara (ECD) and his wife Naqueeba Zahid Zafarali also known as ‘Naqueeba Zafarali’ of the same address.

Shafeek and Jamel were not required to plead to the indictable charge which stated that they murdered Lewis. The men were jointly charged with the couple for the crime.

They were remanded to prison and the matter was adjourned to May 24, 2023.

Following the discovery of Lewis’s skeletal remains, the police had issued two wanted bulletins for the couple who had fled the jurisdiction. Meanwhile, the police are expected to send the remains overseas for DNA testing to confirm that they belong to the Lewis.

According to reports, Lewis was last seen alive by his mother, Charlene Jordon, around 17:15hrs on June 19, 2020, after leaving their home at La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara (WBD). He left in a silver-grey Toyota Premio motorcar that he borrowed from a friend for work duties at the Agricola Police Station.

Last Wednesday, the police dug up the skeletal remains from a shallow grave at the Madewini Sand Pit area on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway.

According to a statement by the police, it was the two accused who decided to cooperate with the detectives after they were shown evidence linking them to the disappearance of Lewis.

Kaieteur News learnt that Lewis was allegedly involved in a romantic relationship with Zafarali and was reportedly lured to the couple’s East Bank Demerara (EBD) home on the day he disappeared. Lewis was allegedly shot at the location and his body then transported to the Madewini Sand Pit area where it was buried. Notably, while the suspects never confessed to shooting Lewis, they claimed that it was the woman’s husband who shot and killed the cop.

Security cameras had captured him crossing over the Demerara Harbour Bridge on June 19, 2020, and heading into Greenfield Park.

Extradition Matters

Shawn Neblett

In November 2020, ex-policeman, Shawn Neblett, was handed over to United States Federal Officers to be extradited to face a series of drug related charges in the United States.

He was wanted in the U.S. for conspiracy to import cocaine, conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute, importation of cocaine, and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

The extradition hearing was carried out against Neblett after a wanted bulletin was issued on June 10, 2016, for him in the U.S. in connection with a matter involving trafficking of narcotics through the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri.

According to the indictment, between August 2015 and September 2015, in the Eastern District of New York, Neblett conspired to smuggle cocaine into the US from Guyana.

In August 2015, he was accused of arranging for a courier in Guyana to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. in exchange for US$8,000.

More than a year after, the extradition matter commenced in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts before Principal Magistrate, Faith McGusty – the magistrate ruled that there was sufficient evidence against Neblett for him to be extradited to face the court in the U.S.

The Guyana Police Force had issued a wanted bulletin for Neblett on February 2, 2017, but he was arrested in May, 2019 at Moleson Creek, Berbice while illegally attempting to cross over to Suriname.

Marcus Bisram

In 2019, US based Guyana-born businessman, Marcus Bisram, was extradited from the U.S.

According to reports, it was a long haul for Bisram. He had been in custody since July 2017. He had asked the New York courts to set him free on the grounds that there was no extradition treaty between the U.S. and Guyana.

However, lawyers for the U.S. government successfully argued that a longstanding agreement between the U.S. and Britain, which had ruled Guyana up to the 1960s still, holds.

Bisram was in the custody of U.S. authorities, after being arrested on July 2017 based on a request of the Guyana government.

He was being accused of ordering a hit on a Berbice carpenter, Faiyaz Narinedatt, a guest at a party he hosted back in late 2016. Narinedatt was alleged to have been beaten by several men, at the behest of Bisram.

Notably, Bisram has since been freed of the charge following several legal battles leading up all the way to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Peter Ramcharran

In 2019, former accountant of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Peter Ramcharran, was extradited from Canada to face fraud allegations amounting to millions.

Ramcharran was charged for fraudulent conversion and misappropriation of funds that allegedly took place between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2015. The total is said to be over $400M.

This was after Guyana asked for his extradition to face the charges pertaining to his duties at GRDB, which was the executing agency for a major oil-for-rice deal worth billions with Venezuela. That deal ended suddenly in 2015 by a hostile Venezuela after the coalition government came into office.

A year after Ramcharran was extradited he was found guilty and sentenced to three years imprisonment for omitting $145M from the rice entity’s ledger.

In Canada, Ramcharran had first applied for refugee status. After he was turned down in December 2017, he sought a review of his extradition process, but this was turned down.

Ramcharran had reportedly been studying in Canada, when authorities swooped down on him in June 2017 following a request for his extradition.

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• Court Journal, extradited, Police Constable, Quincy Lewis, Shafeek Vernon

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