In a simple ceremony, prisoner Edwin Niles who died after sustaining severe injuries at the Camp Street jail was laid to rest yesterday.
The general consensus among his relatives at the funeral was that proper investigations could have been carried out into the ammunition allegations against him instead of “officers taking matters into their own hands”.
The body was at Sandy’s Funeral Home for viewing before being taken to Saint Andrews Kirk at Brickdam for a service and then finally to Le Repentir cemetery for burial.
Many quietly shed tears as relatives in song and simple speeches and scripture readings paid their final respect to Niles. Alliance For Change leader Rafael Trotman who made an appearance at the church service said that his presence at the funeral was to show that there are still persons in society who care about the welfare of the populace and are interested in seeing justice prevail. He emphasized that his presence, besides showing his support to the family, was to make a statement that justice must prevail.
Niles’ mother Brenda Nurse related to Stabroek News yesterday that the family had heard nothing from the relevant authorities concerning the investigation since the post-mortem was done.
Thirty-four-year-old Niles of Guyhoc Park succumbed to injuries he sustained after reportedly receiving a sound beating when he was found with a quantity of ammunition. He was reported to have had seven .22 rounds of ammunition in his possession after returning to the Camp Street prison from a day of labour at Camp Ayanganna. He was hospitalized for nine days before he died. He was serving a three-year sentence for narcotics possession and would have been released in September.
A statement from the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) had said that the man was admitted to the GPHC following reports that he had been beaten after he was found with the ammunition. Hospital sources had told Stabroek News that the man’s body bore serious lacerations and he had a broken arm as well as burns on his back. This newspaper had also learnt that Niles’ body bore several “black and blue marks”, which may have caused much internal bleeding. A post-mortem conducted later stated that Niles died as a result of a blood clot in the lungs due to burns about the back and a fractured left arm. Director of Prisons Dale Erskine had said earlier that he had received reports that Niles’ injuries were not life threatening.
Murdered
The issue has attracted much public comment. Opposition Leader Robert Corbin said that there was no question 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.”
He had also stated 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. Corbin also said that he received the information from independent sources and would go on oath with it.
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has also issued a statement calling for an impartial and vigorous investigation into Niles’s death and for the matter not to be treated as exempt from the normal processes of the law because the Disciplined Services are involved. It also said that “charges appropriate to the severity of the crime should be laid promptly, if only to quell the rapid disintegration of official credibility on these issues.”
Meanwhile grieving relatives who were anxiously awaiting Niles’ release from prison in just two more months have expressed doubt as to whether they would get justice for his death.
