(Antigua Sun) – Latchman Bhola and Zeena Moonasar, both of Guyana, who are alleged to be involved in a scam where a number of people were issued with fake immigration stamps, have again been denied bail.
The duo, who is on remand at Her Majesty’s Prison, appeared before Magistrate Keith Thom in the St John’s Magistrates’ Court last week.
Moonasar’s attorney, George Lake, in applying for bail for his client said the woman has resided in Antigua for a number of years.
Lake said that the mere fact that she has resided in the country for the requisite number of years, it is her right to be entitled to be granted time in the country.
He told the court that it cannot be the law to hold her now and say that she does not have time when she had the opportunity, prior to her arrest, to regularize herself.
Moonasar was detained by the police one week before her time to remain in the country had expired. The prosecutor told the court that both Bhola and Moonasar have no legal status in the country. According to the prosecutor, it was the police’s fear that the duo is a flight risk.
The prosecutor told the court that Moonasar would not have been granted an extension although she had one week before her time expired because she has a criminal matter pending before the court.
Magistrate Thom said due to the serious nature of the offence, he was denying bail for the two.
Bhola’s lawyer, Monique Francis-Gordon, who had made a similar application on his behalf, was not present in court as she was unwell.
The 24 year-old Guyanese man who was convicted in October for uttering false documents to immigration officials is jointly charged with the Guyanese woman with forgery.
Bhola and Moonasar are alleged to have forged an Antigua and Barbuda immigration extension stamp some time between May and August of this year. Moonasar allegedly had in her possession a seal, which she later used to stamp time in a woman’s passport after she was paid on one occasion $450 and at another time $550.
It is further alleged that the police have confiscated over 30 passports of people who took them to the duo seeking an extension to remain in the country.
Bhola was held at VC Bird International Airport on 24 October after he disembarked a Liat flight from Barbados. Reports are he presented his passport to an immigration officer for clearance to enter the country when the fake extension and work permit stamps were discovered.
He was subsequently charged with uttering forged documents, was convicted, fined and ordered deported. His deportation was halted and criminal charges were filed against him, after investigators discovered the alleged immigration scam.
The trial of the duo has been set for 16 Dec.
