- High Court orders suspects be released on bail
Two of the five persons that were arrested on Monday night in the vicinity of the St Ambrose Primary School, Georgetown, have been released on station bail after their lawyer filed an application at the High Court to have access to his clients.
One of the men, who was accused of having an illegal firearm that was found in the vicinity of St Ambrose Primary, which was being used as a polling station for elections, was released on $50,000 bail pending investigations.
However, this was only possible after his attorney, Everton Singh-Lammy, had to resort to getting a Court order to be issued to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to have access to his client, who had been in Police custody for over 24 hours without being allowed to speak to a lawyer.
On Wednesday, Singh-Lammy told Guyana Times that his client was wrongfully detained and despite repeated requests and visits at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to provide legal counsel to the man, the Police prohibited him from such.
He noted that the High Court had ordered that the Commissioner of Police, Leslie James, produce the bodies of his two clients at the High Court on Wednesday. The matter was heard by Justice Gino Persaud.
Meanwhile, Police Commander of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Sub-division A (Georgetown), Assistant Police Commissioner Edgar Thomas, has since confirmed that the men were not arrested for attempting to or tampering with the electoral process.
They were arrested for other infractions, he noted.
When questioned about the charges that are expected to be laid against the men, the Commander noted that he no longer is heading the investigations, but emphasised that their offences were not linked to causing unrest during the electoral process.
“This matter is being investigated by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) so it is out of my hand. The fact of the matter is that you shouldn’t be within 200 yards of a polling station. So, you might have had several violations there, they shouldn’t have been there,” he stated.
However, Singh-Lammy pointed out that even if the men had been arrested for such, those offences are bailable and would not explain why he was prevented from speaking with his clients during their custodial period.
According to the attorney, the next step to be taken is that of redress at the Court, in relation to this matter. Additionally, he will be seeking the Court’s attention with regard to the fact that his clients’ legal rights were trampled upon by the GPF.
