‘Niles was murdered and cops must say who did it’
Opposition Leader Robert Corbin said yesterday there was no question that convicted prisoner Edwin Niles was murdered and insisted that the police have an obligation to tell the nation what exactly happened and who was guilty of the killing.
Corbin has also since written to Acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene, stating, “at worst Niles’s death must be treated as murder while in custody of the prison authorities and at best, death under mysterious circumstances which require investigations.”
Corbin told reporters yesterday that he was reliably informed that Niles had been beaten with a wooden baton and rubber hose and the burns he sustained obviously came from a hot liquid. He said he received the information from independent sources and would go on oath with the information he received.
“It is murder. But the question is, who is guilty of the murder. No doubt it is murder. What needs to be found out is who is the guilty party and the police have an obligation to tell us what happened.”
At its weekly press conference yesterday the PNCR added its voice to those condemning the circumstances that led to the man’s killing and enquired about the steps which have since been taken by the police to investigate the matter. Party executive, Basil Williams, reading a prepared statement, referred to Corbin’s letter to Greene, copies of which were released to the media. Corbin has called on Greene as the constitutional holder of the office of Commissioner of Police “to account for its stewardship in this matter,” which he said has grave implications for the fundamental rights of citizens as guaranteed under the Constitution of Guyana.
Corbin also told the commissioner that since the incident he has been in touch with Niles’s mother, Brenda Nurse, who had provided him with her knowledge of the incident and her son’s subsequent death.
Corbin said he learned from Nurse that based on information received she visited the Georgetown Public Hospital on July 4, and on arrival at Ward B2 she saw her son with his left hand in a cast and the left side of his face, neck and back burnt. His general appearance showed signs of being brutalized.
The woman then visited the prison authorities, where, she told Corbin, she was informed by named prison officers that her son was found with seven rounds of live ammunition in his possession on return from a work assignment at the GDF compound. He was subsequently interrogated at the prison and during the interrogation, he had an altercation with the said officers. Nurse also queried how that altercation could have resulted in broken bones and burnt skin and the reply was that her son’s injuries were not life-threatening. She was further advised that the prison authorities subsequently released him to the Brickdam police for further interrogation. She requested a visiting pass to see her son but this was refused, Corbin’s letter said.
He added that based on further information the woman returned to the Georgetown Public Hospital at around 11 pm on July 11 where a nurse on duty advised her that her son had died. She witnessed his body being removed from the ward to the hospital mortuary.
Corbin said it was not until at 2 pm on July 12, that she received a call from someone purporting to be an officer of the prison, officially informing her of her son’s death.
Pressing on
The PNCR vowed that it will be pursuing the matter further and stated that the murder of Niles was the latest evidence that the PPP government has nurtured an out-of-control environment in which the human rights of Guyanese are trampled on.
“The attitude of the authorities is not only inconsistent with the creation of a democratic culture, but also undermines the rule of law and order and respect for the rights of our citizens”, Williams said.
He recalled the torture of Victor Jones and Patrick Sumner allegedly committed by ranks of the Guyana Defence Force and David Zammet by ranks of the Guyana Police Force. He also referred to allegations that elements of the GDF had tortured several soldiers.
“The report, by the GDF, though long promised, is yet to see the light of day as the Jagdeo PPP (administration) seeks… to protect its favourites from facing the full rigour of the law,” Williams asserted.
He acknowledged that the issue of inquiries being launched into many torture allegations, but with no results, was a problem the party will have to confront. He said the first avenue was for all local remedies to be exhausted. He pointed out that in the past many tactics have been employed to frustrate the commencement of many of those enquiries. “And there has always been an effort and persons finding ways and means to stymie the process and protecting certain persons within the system who go against the law,” he added.
Impartial investigation
Meanwhile as relatives of the dead man continue to grieve, the man’s mother in an interview with this newspaper yesterday said she believed the only thing she can ask for was an impartial investigation.
“Some truth may come out of it. I know this is Guyana, but what more can I ask for? It had to be done by some person or persons. Putting everything together I think they should come up with something,” the woman stated.
Asked whether she had heard anything about the status of the police’s investigations, she said she was yesterday informed by a named officer that the investigation at the police’s end was almost complete. She said she was also informed that investigations at the army’s end will commence thereafter.
She said so far she has heard nothing about investigations being done by the prisons even though Prison Chief Dale Erskine after offering his condolences had said that one would be done. However she said she has not heard from Erskine since.
The woman said her son’s siblings as well as his five-year-old daughter had been were anxiously awaiting his release from prison which was due in September this year, only two months away. “We were really looking forward for him to be freed again. His brothers and sisters, we were all awaiting, I myself. Now I am just drained at this situation. But I have lost a son and this should not happen again. What I know is that whoever killed him is inhumane,” she said.
She recounted that when she had first seen her son at the hospital, the first thing that caught her eyes were the burns. She said when she approached the bed her son was in she was told by a female prison warden that her son could not have visitors.
“So he said to her, this is my mother and she said ok, but that she would have to stand there. But it’s not like he said much because he was in serious pain and I just looked at my son. Then she told me I should go back to the prison to get a pass but I was denied this,” she said.
The woman said she went back to the hospital early on the day her son died and she asked a nurse how he was doing and was assured that he was going to be alright. At that time, she said, she saw him from the back being pushed in a wheelchair.
“About 10:30 that night I heard that he wasn’t doing well, so me and my daughter went back and when she got to go upstairs about past half hour later, he was already wrapped in a white sheet and a paper was on him marked, 23 hours probably indicating the time he died,” the woman remembered.
Not political
When told of the opposition leader’s letter to Greene on her son’s matter, Nurse said she did not go to Corbin as a political person. She said Corbin was a member of the peace ambassadors’ organization, to which she is aligned and she approached him on that basis.
“I went as an ambassador for peace and I showed my badge and we spoke of the matter. It was nothing political, because I pay no attention to politics. I believe that we are all human beings on the same level playing field,” she said.
The exact chain of events that occurred after Niles was found to have had the ammunition in his possession has not been revealed. However, Corbin said his information was that following the find, Niles was interrogated and during that an altercation resulted and the man was beaten, then sent to the Brickdam Police Station for more interrogation then he ended up at the hospital with the burns on his skin, a broken left arm and seemed to have been brutalized.
Edwin Niles, 36, was convicted of cannabis possession and was sentenced to three years imprisonment which would have come to an end in September.