The family of an inmate of the New Amsterdam Prison, who reportedly died last Sunday, allegedly after complaining of abdominal pains, is questioning the circumstances of his death, since they claim that according to the post-mortem report he died of strangulation.
Dead is Cheddi Brijbilas of Mibicuri, Black Bush Polder, who was incarcerated at the New Amsterdam Prison. Efforts to contact prison officials in Berbice and Director of Prisons Dale Erskine in Georgetown for a comment yesterday proved futile.
According to Joseph Brijbilas, the son of Cheddi Brijbilas, on Friday October 3, his mother Chandrawattie Brijbilas, spoke with his father at the Prison. He described their conversation then as “normal”.
On Monday October 6, the family received a telephone call from a person who identified himself as a prison officer, who said that Cheddi had “passed away”, and that he had been complaining of “abdominal pains”.
Joseph Brijbilas, a third-year student at the Cyril Potter College of Education, Rose Hall, told Stabroek News that the news came as a shock, since only “a few days we talk to he and he never mention anything like that”.
Joseph said his father was an “outspoken person” and if something was wrong with him he would have said.
He also questioned why the officer from the prison waited until Monday to call, when persons saw them “taking we father from the prison since Sunday? Why they had to wait till Monday fuh call we? Why they didn’t call on Sunday?”
The family is not sure whether Cheddi died at the hospital or at the Prison, but a post-mortem examination was performed and the report stated that he died from “manual strangulation”.
Joseph said his father was a very strong person and “it would take more than one or two persons to overcome him”.
Speaking to Stabroek News at the Brijbilas home, as persons were gathering for the funeral yesterday, Joseph said the events just “don’t add up”.
He explained, too, that when they went to the mortuary to see Cheddi, they were prevented from doing so and were told, ‘it is a police matter. You all can’t go in there’.
He also questioned why they were not allowed to witness the post-mortem examination.
He said that when they finally got the body for burial, they noticed that there were “cuts on his mouth”.
The Brijbilases lamented that “nobody nah give we any satisfaction yet. Nobody nah say nothing yet.”
Cheddi Brijbilas’s death follows those of Nolan Noble and Edwin Niles, both of whom were inmates of the Georgetown Prison. Two prison officers have since been charged with killing Niles.
