Ahead of the court ruling on $54M in uncut diamonds that vanished in police custody almost 25 years ago; the owner maintained that the items were weighed in front of him.
The now elderly businessman says he has never seen his missing merchandise ever since it disappeared from the Mahdia Police Station in the Potaro-Siparuni district.
The trial involving Ronald Khan’s 7-year legal suit against the State to reclaim his $54M in uncut diamonds concluded before Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln at the High Court on Wednesday.
She who will soon hand down her decision in the matter.
The 430 carats of diamonds were taken as evidence by police after it was recovered following a 1994 robbery investigation when Khan’s Ewang Creek, mining camp in Region Eight was invaded.
During that attack, his brother and another miner were shot and killed while Khan’s life was nearly taken as he too was shot. He told the court that he now bares a hole to his neck and can hardly see owing to his injuries.
The now elderly man who had to be assisted to a seat where he testified said that he spoke with late Police Commissioner Henry Greene in 2010 whom he said promised that the matter would be investigated but this never gained traction.
Khan also claimed that following the recovery in 1994, he attended court on a few occasions after being hospitalized for nearly three months but said he never knew what came out of the murder and robbery matter.
An animated Khan appeared surprised when State attorney Tiffany Castello suggested that the minerals may not have been in fact diamonds; but the man stressed that he became a pork knocker in 1950 as he outlined how diamonds are placed in categories.
Castello later suggested that Khan couldn’t see properly when he claimed that he identified the stones at the Mahdia Station but the former miner stressed that he could make out his diamonds.
He is being represented by attorney Nigel Hughes.
