See full statement from the Guyana Police Force:
Head of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) Assistant Commissioner Fizul Karimbaksh is refuting an article in ‘Big Smith News Watch’ under the caption ‘SOCU Head contributes 25% to Brutus $20 Million schoonard property purchase’.
The article states, among other things, that “Assistant Commissioner of Police Calvin Brutus has come forward to reveal that the head of the Special Organised Crime Unit, Fizal Karimbaksh ‘reportedly’ contributed 25% of the total sum that he, Brutus, paid to purchase a property in West Demerara earlier this year which carried a price tag of GYD 20,000,000 (twenty Million Guyana Dollars). Brutus has also confirmed that the SOCU head did indeed gift him and his wife, a substantial monetary gift for their wedding back in 2023.”
Karimbaksh noted that the contents of the article are egregious, patently false and libelous, without merit and dangerously misleading to the public. It must be extremely clear to the public that Leroy Smith is a hired gun for Calvin Brutus and is being used by Brutus not only to attack SOCU’s investigators but also to attack the credibility of the investigations being done against him. All of this is being done in the fanciful hope that it will help Brutus with the charges that are to be instituted and may constitute an obstruction to justice, a criminal offence.
This is the most vile abuse and misuse of press freedom. I wish to call on the Guyana Press Association to rid this rogue reporter. The Assistant Commissioner noted that there is no evidence to substantiate the preposterous article.
The SOCU head will be instituting legal proceedings against “Big Smith News Watch” and its publisher, Leroy Smith and will also instruct a criminal investigation to be instituted in respect to obstruction of justice.
