The Government last night rejected the testimony of UK executive Peter Myers in a US court that his company sold the spy equipment linked to drug trafficker Roger Khan to the administration, declaring again that it was not a party to any activity with the firm or US authorities in the purchase and or importation of the equipment.
The administration charged that there is no evidence tying it to the purchase and that it was not a party to any transaction with the US government agency responsible for granting export licensing for the equipment, according to a press statement issued by the Government Information Agency (GINA). The statement comes in the wake of the sworn testimony by Myers which implicated the administration in the sale.
Myers, who co-founded the firm, testified under oath that the intercept equipment, including an intercept receiver and two laptops, was sold by the company’s Florida sales office through the Fort Lauderdale-based Spy Shop to the Government of Guyana (GOG). He identified the equipment in court during the trial of former Khan lawyer Robert Simels who is being tried for witness tampering.
Simels’ defence has again identified Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy as the purchaser of the equipment on behalf of the government- a charge that the minister vehemently rejected yesterday during a press briefing. (See other story on page 3.)
The government in its statement last night said that the authorities in the exporting state usually require the authorities of the importing state to verify the authenticity of the user of such arms and equipment, adding that that in concluding such purchases, a supplier has to obtain from its national authorities an export approval licence. This is a point that had been previously raised by President Bharrat Jagdeo.
“Its failed attempt to import MP5 weapons from the UK attests to the difficulties faced by the Guyana Government in participating in the export licensing approval schemes for sensitive arms and equipment”, the statement said.
The Government added in the past it had encountered difficulties importing sensitive equipment into Guyana.
In the US court on Wednesday, Myers identified the intercept receiver as the CSM 7806 as well as two “TOUGHBOOK” Laptops, a small one and a larger one. He told the court both in direct evidence and during cross-examination that the only things missing from the equipment that was sold to Guyana were a USB cable and a small rubber antenna, both regular items that could be picked up at any electronic store.
He also testified that an independent contractor, a trainer named Carl Chapman, had been dispatched to Guyana to train the persons who had to use the laptops. Further, Simels’ defence team maintains in emails and subpoenas that Khan was trained by Chapman to use the equipment. Stabroek News had reported on the visit of the trainer but the government and the immigration department were mum on this.
In December 2002, an army patrol discovered the sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment and arms in a pick-up that Khan, Haroon Yahya and policeman Sean Belfield were in at Good Hope, on the East Coast Demerara. Khan and his colleagues had told law enforcement officials at the time that they were in search of Shawn Brown and the other February 2002 Camp Street prison escapees.
Police Commissioner Henry Greene had maintained that local law enforcement is in possession of the equipment seized from Khan in 2002. When asked what the force was going to do with the equipment and why it had not been used to track some of Khan’s former associates, he said it would be “used as evidence.”
In June last year, as Khan battled a drug smuggling indictment, his lawyers disclosed that a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe had found that the GoG had given Khan permission to purchase the sensitive electronic surveillance equipment from the Spy Shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and this was reported in the Stabroek News. On June 9, 2008, the Home Affairs Ministry issued a statement rejecting the claim, saying that both Guyana and the US had strict sale and import/export controls on such items. “In Guyana, such sensitive electronic items could only be procured and imported for the exclusive use of law enforcement agencies,” the statement said. “Such a request by the law enforcement agencies of Guyana would have to be approved by the relevant authorities before an application is made by the [GoG] to the relevant American authorities for approval for the item to be exported to Guyana. The Ministry of Home Affairs asserts that it did not authorize the importation of the electronic equipment under question nor did it seek any approval of the US authorities for an export licence for the item. In the context of the above, the Ministry of Home Affairs has since requested the American authorities to provide it with the records of all such applications made by the Government of Guyana during the period of the operations of the Roger Khan outfit.”
Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon shortly after said that he had neither signed any document authorising Khan to import the equipment nor had colluded with him to do so. Meanwhile, on June 25, last year, President Jagdeo said that the spy equipment was in the custody of the police and had not worked since it was confiscated.
He also reiterated that the GoG could not give permission to Khan to import the sophisticated surveillance equipment from the Spy Shop. Jagdeo said it was only the US government which could have authorised the sale, while noting that a formal request had been made to the US State Department on the issue as well as allegations from the US government that Khan may have been tied to a group responsible for over 200 murders during the period of 2002 to 2006. “We don’t have any hard evidence about these claims but we have nothing to hide so we have requested the information from the US and whatever are the responses we will make it public,” Jagdeo declared at the time.
