A retired Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer may be used as a key witness against drug accused Roger Khan who has since sought to discredit any notion that they could have been co-conspirators in exporting drugs, alleging that he had exposed the former officer’s links to the criminal enterprise in Buxton.
The former army officer, who made the news on numerous occasions several years ago, and who in the past had received the personal attention of President Bharrat Jagdeo, was reportedly nabbed in the US and subsequently turned state witness.
From all indications, even before Khan was arrested in Trinidad and taken to the US, he had gotten wind of the possibility of the ex-officer testifying against him, after he (Khan) was named as a drug trafficker in the US 2006 drug report. He made “assorted accusations” against the former officer and others during his March 2006 meeting with US officials at the Ocean View Hotel. He sought to provide “evidence” that the man had worked in cohort with Shawn Brown, one of the five February 23, 2002 prison escapees. He had alleged that the then officer, who had been in charge of Operation Tourniquet in Buxton, was in league with Brown, who was responsible for kidnapping former US diplomat Stephen Lesniak.
Operation Tourniquet was established as part of the joint operations with the police and the army to arrest the wave of criminal activity on the lower East Coast by criminals who operated out of Buxton.
Since his name has been mentioned on several occasions in Khan’s case, there have been several questions about the whereabouts of the now ex-officer and whether he was still a member of the GDF.
Stabroek News contacted the army’s Public Relations Officer, Woman Colonel Windee Algernon, and she said that the man had retired. She explained that while he might not have reached the normal age of retirement there was a system in the army where an officer could retire based on the number of years served. However, Col Algernon could not say when he retired; whether he asked for early retirement or opted for same as she said she would have to check his file to get such information.
However, Stabroek News understands that the ex-officer, who had attained the rank of major, opted for early retirement and might be in the US at present. Sources have indicated to this newspaper that the man was well known to Khan and persons were aware that the two worked together, even though Khan now wanted to portray them as enemies. According to reliable information reaching this newspaper, the officer and his brother, who is now somewhere in the UK, were working for Khan during his reign in Guyana.
Recalled
Back in May 2003, the then captain was the only officer who President Jagdeo refused to promote from a long list of officers recommended for promotion. While the final authority for promotions rests with the Defence Board, before the move by the President in 2003 recommendations from the army had been accepted with no rejections.
The then captain was recommended by a promotions panel chaired by the then chief of staff, Brigadier Michael Atherly, based on the recommendation of his battalion commander. The commander’s recommendation was said to be based on the ex-officer’s attitude and performance in his substantive rank, his suitability for promotion to higher rank and authority as well as his suitability for retention in the army. That assessment was reached based on a recommendation of a promotion panel at the battalion level, which reviewed the ex-officer’s annual confidential reports and assessed his suitability.
The fact that the then captain was subsequently promoted to the rank of major brings into question the reason for President Jagdeo blocking his promotion in 2003.
The Minister of Defence, who is President Jagdeo, had also recalled the former officer from a training course in the USA, for which the GDF had selected him. The officer was halfway through the course when he was ordered to return to Guyana.
Stabroek News was told at that time that in the case of training overseas, except for officers of the rank of colonel and above, the convention was that the selection was made at the level of the GDF, but that the Minister of Defence had the final authority.
Reports at that time had also indicated that it was not the practice for the GDF to submit a list of officers sent for training overseas to the Defence Board, and it was a mystery as to how President Jagdeo knew that the officer had been sent on a training course in the USA.
Don’t shoot
Meanwhile, back in 2002 the then officer was one of the several others who had testified in the Linden London alias ‘Blackie’ inquest that the cornered fugitive was killed by a hail of bullets when he emerged from his hiding place with hands on his head, although another army officer had shouted pleas not to shoot.
He, along with the others, was recalling for the benefit of Coroner Melissa Robertson and a jury, what had happened when a joint police and army siege was laid to Toucan Suites apartment hotel at Eccles, on February 9, 2000, to capture the fugitive who had been wanted for murders and robberies.
The officer had said that the shots from which London fell were fired despite former army captain Wycliffe McAllister shouting:” Don’t shoot! Hold your fire!”
Subversive activities
When President Jagdeo had refused to promote the then officer, senior army sources at that time had told Stabroek News that nothing in the man’s record indicated that he had behaved in an inappropriate manner either during his assignment in Buxton or in the other locations at which he was stationed.
However, this was not the picture Roger Khan painted in a motion he filed through his lawyers.
That motion claimed that the then officer was so involved in criminal activities in Buxton that he delayed finding Lesniak, even though information of the location of the kidnapped man was provided.
The US has since sought to disallow any evidence about the ex-officer’s alleged criminal activities from the trial as they see it as “self serving” for Khan and irrelevant to the fact that the man trafficked in drugs.
While the prosecution has argued that any involvement of Khan in the diplomat’s release was irrelevant to the drug case, Khan’s lawyers had stated in the motion: “… the relevance of evidence pertaining to the Lesniak kidnapping is broader than the government addresses.
The fact that Lesniak was kidnapped and taken to the village of Buxton – about which fact he could testify – is significant. [Name of then GDF officer] was in charge of the military force responsible for bringing the Buxton criminals under control, but was in fact in league with them – including Shawn Brown, who kidnapped Lesniak.”
According to the lawyers, they had evidence that will show that the then officer was supportive of the kidnapping and deliberately delayed at a military checkpoint a search party, which had learned, through Khan’s intelligence activities, Lesniak’s precise location, and as such compromised the search.
The motion claimed that Khan coordinated with US agents in securing Lesniak’s release, and subsequently to end “[name of ex-GDF officer’s] subversive activities at Buxton”. The lawyers also stated that such evidence supported the conclusion that Khan and the ex-officer were enemies, and thus not likely co-conspirators.
