A man, who was accused of stabbing his cousin to death in July, 2003 was given his freedom by Justice William Ramlal after no-case submissions were upheld on Thursday.
Terrence Clenkian, 39, of Madewini, Linden-Soesdyke Highway first appeared before the judge last Tuesday. Defence attorney Jolyon Hatmin represented the man. It had been alleged that on July 6, 2003 Clenkian stabbed Michael Beharry to death at Madewini.
On Thursday, after a no-case submission by the defence, the judge ordered the jury to return a unanimous verdict of not guilty.
Before the defence’s no-case submission State Prosecutor Ganesh Hira had reported that police had taken a confession statement from Clenkian.
However, Hira explained that those police officers are now dead. In addition to this the prosecutor informed the court that two of its other witnesses had also died. It was a lack of witnesses, to challenge the defence’s suggestion that the confession was not given voluntary, which weakened the prosecution’s case and resulted in a lack of evidence to lead against the former accused.
According to the court’s records, Beharry’s death resulted from a fight that was triggered by what was described as a “high wine spree”. The former accused and the deceased, court reports said, were involved in an altercation during which Beharry was reportedly stabbed to the chest area and later died.
Clenkian, court records reflected, spent just over six years in prison as he awaited the completion of his preliminary inquiry in the Magistrate’s Court and then later his High Court trial.
