– prison service concerned over poison reports
Murder accused David Leander called ‘Biscuit’ and ‘David Zammet’, died yesterday around 9.30 am in the Male Surgical Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) where he was admitted last Thursday after he was suspected to have been poisoned.
According to a press release from the office of the Director of Prisons, two weeks before he was hospitalized, Leander complained of feeling unwell. On Thursday, July 9, he was referred to the GPH where he was treated and returned to the Georgetown Prison. The release said Leander was again referred and admitted to the hospital last Thursday and remained there until his death yesterday morning.
The prison administration expressed concern about comments made in the media which suggested that the prisoner might have been poisoned. The release stated that during his brief illness, Leander made no complaints or comments to the prison administration as to the nature of his illness. It said that on his admission to the prison, Leander requested to receive meals from his relatives who were authorized to do so. This practice continued until the time of his demise, the release said.
His relatives including an aunt, Evelyn Estwick, who had been at his bedside every day since his admission to the hospital last week, were hysterical yesterday morning at the GPH’s morgue where Leander’s body was taken after he was pronounced dead. Estwick said she visited her nephew at the hospital yesterday around 5 am and was at his bedside for about an hour. Between 9.30 and 10 am yesterday, the woman said, she received a call from the hospital and someone informed her that Leander had died. She and other relatives were visibly upset yesterday at the hospital morgue after they were prevented from viewing the man’s body.
Asked for a comment on the passing of Leander yesterday morning at a PNCR press conference, Opposition Leader Robert Corbin said one has to be concerned when a prisoner, who while in the custody of the state and who is presumed innocent until proven guilty, is poisoned. He said his death “casts suspicion on what is taking place in the judicial system”. He called it a very worrying development.
Corbin likened Leander’s illness and passing to that of Mark Thomas called ‘Kerzorkee’, one of three ‘death squad’ accused, who died at the GPH on February 1, 2004 weeks after he was rushed to that medical institution. His death remains a mystery with many saying that he was killed so that he would not be able to say what he knew about the squad. Corbin said that at the time, Thomas was “a very vital person”, who would have provided evidence on the existence of a death squad. He also said that the murder of self-confessed death squad informant George Bacchus, whose brother Shafeek Bacchus, Thomas and two others had been accused of murdering, bore similarities to that of Leander.
After his admission to the GPH last Thursday morning, Leander appeared to have been recovering from his sickness and on Monday afternoon, he was sitting on his hospital bed, chatting with relatives.
However, the man’s condition took a turn for the worse earlier this week when he fell into a coma. There has not yet been an explanation for why he remained in the open ward up to his death since he was in such a serious condition.
Estwick had told Stabroek News on Tuesday that the doctor who was attending to her 29-year-old nephew told them that the man had suffered kidney failure and that he was in a coma. She said the doctor did not explain what led to this development in the man’s condition. She said the doctor also informed her that Leander had suffered a blood clot in one of his feet and as such “they had to burst the bottom of his foot”.
Estwick had also brushed aside assertions that her nephew was diabetic, stating that when he was severely beaten after being apprehended, she had checked his blood sugar level which was verified by a doctor to be normal.
Leander’s death leaves a hole in the case for which he was before the courts, that of the murders of former agriculture minister Satyadeow Sawh, his brother Rajpat Sawh, his sister Phulmattie Persaud and his security guard Curtis Robertson which occurred on the evening of April 22, 2007 at the Sawhs’ La Bonne intention (LBI) residence.
The police had issued wanted bulletins for Leander and several other high-profile wanted men and a $2 million reward was offered for the capture of Leander, Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles, Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins, Orlando Andrews called ‘Bullet’ or ‘Jeffrey’ of Buxton, ‘Cash’ of Buxton, ‘Not Nice’ of Buxton and ‘Sonny’ of Agricola. Rawlins and Charles, who was also before the courts in relation to the LBI murders before he escaped from the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court, were subsequently killed during a shootout with the joint services on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway last August.
Leander was captured during a joint services operation in Buxton which resulted in the death of Noel ‘Baby’ James who had been recently released from prison after serving a sentence for simple larceny, and Andrews who was wanted in connection with a number of murders. When the Vigilance, East Coast Demerara resident, had first appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on November 8, 2007 in relation to the LBI murders, he displayed visible injuries about his body and could hardly walk. His attorney had held the police responsible for beating Leander while he was in custody. He was later admitted to the GPH following an order by Justice Jainarayan Singh Jr.
Allegations of him being beaten while in custody were again presented before Magistrate Yohhannseh Cave when the Preliminary Inquiry (PI) commenced at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court.
Last Monday, when the PI continued at that court, Magistrate Cave ruled that an oral statement purportedly made by Leander was inadmissible in the PI. The accused was admitted to the hospital several days later when his relatives alleged that he had been poisoned.
Leander leaves to mourn three children — the eldest being a six-year-old daughter — his mother and other siblings.
A post-mortem examination is expected to be performed on Monday.
