Principal Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle yesterday remanded to prison a Venezuelan national who was captured during a shoot-out with police after allegedly kidnapping a mother and her child.
Jesus Ortega Manrique, 42, of Bolivar, Venezuela, was not required to plead to the indictable charge of abduction when he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
It is alleged that on December 8, at Ruimzeight, West Coast Demerara, he abducted Sheleza Dataram and Keana Dataram with intent to cause them to be secretly or wrongfully confined.
According to a police statement, around midday on December 8, Sheleza’s husband Barry Dataram reported to them that about 2 am on the said day he was about to enter his home when two masked men armed with a rifle and a handgun held him at gunpoint and forced him into the building. Dataram said the men then bound him and allegedly demanded cash and jewellery from his wife. He said Sheleza handed over US$16,000, $800,000 and jewellery to the value of $40,000. He said the men then took his wife and their three-year-old daughter and escaped in his motor car after telling him that they would call him later for more money.
Police later responded to a tip-off and engaged the men and, during a shoot-out, a man identified as Raul Antonio Munoz Centeno of Venezuela, on the basis of documents found on him, was killed and Manrique captured. Manrique had been deported from Guyana this year.
Meanwhile, Manrique, through an interpreter, told the court his address and that he is married with three children. The magistrate told him that because he is in Guyana illegally and because he is also a deportee, he will have to remain in custody.
Manrique was ordered to appear at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court on January 24.
