Berbice woman fined $60k for ‘wasting court’s time’ in domestic abuse case against husband

A Berbice housewife has been fined $60,000 for wasting the courts time in a domestic abuse case she had brought against her husband.

The fine was imposed last week on Joanna Ramoutar by Magistrate Michelle Matthias at the Reliance Magistrate’s Court.

Back in June of this year, Ramoutar made a social media post claiming that she had endured six years of abuse at the hands of her husband, Karran Sukhan and that she was living in fear.

In the post, the mother of three asked for authorities to intervene, alleging that they had not been giving her the support she needed.

The abuse was not limited to physical violence. The woman said she was subjected to relentless emotional and mental torment and was called by a name which she described as ‘degrading’.

The post was trending on some social media platforms, with many users bashing the police for not taking the necessary actions.

The following day, police arrested the suspect, a 25-year-old businessman of Lot 143, Number 2 Village, East Canje, Berbice.

He was subsequently charged with assault causing actual bodily harm, use of threatening language, and threatening behaviour against Ramoutar.

The Magistrate remanded Sukhan when he made his first court appearance. However, when the case was called a second time, Attorney at Law Charlyn Artiga successfully mitigated for the accused to be granted pre-trial liberty.

Bail was set at $50,000 for the assault charge and $30,000 for each of the other two charges.

But, Ramoutar now says that she does not want to give evidence in the matter and asked the court to give her husband a warning.

“If he do anything I will get the police to lock him up,” she told the court.

After verifying that the woman was not being threatened or coerced into refusing to give evidence, Police Prosecutor Sherry Williams called on the court to impose a penalty on Ramoutar for wasting the court’s time.

Magistrate Matthias imposed a $20,000 fine on each of the three matters for which the woman refused to give evidence.