Attorney-at-law Glenn Hanoman yesterday questioned why his client was not grilled about the murders of political activist Ronald Waddell and former boxing coach Donald Allison during the nine months he was incarcerated.
He stressed that the police have a right to investigate matters and this he has no problem with but at the same time, “I can’t see the reason why they want to start now (when the matters against him were discharged”.
Hanoman explained that technically a matter being discharged does not mean that that is the final determination, but rather the person can be recharged if fresh evidence is found.
The lawyer who was present on Tuesday when his client was held said that it took about two minutes after the magistrate handed down the decision for his client to be arrested. Hanoman questioned what new evidence the police could have gathered during this short period of time.
He said that the police’s action could be seen as “contemptuous of the court order” and is unfair to his client.
Hanoman said that he wasn’t surprised at his client’s arrest and is confident that his client would be released shortly.
Up to press time last evening Roberts was still in custody.
Roberts was initially accused of being a member of a gang which murdered Romeo De Agrella and Clint De Agrella between March 20 and 23 last year. The decomposing remains of the De Agrellas of Grant Strong Hope, Lower Pomeroon River, were found days after they failed to return home. Post-mortem examinations revealed that they died from multiple gunshot wounds.
The Preliminary Inquiry (PI) for the De Agrella murders was being heard by Magistrate Alan Wilson.
Yesterday Hanoman said that the matter had been transferred to the Mabaruma Magistrate’s Court sometime ago but after the police failed to take his client there he moved to the High Court and was successful in having the case reassigned to a Georgetown Court.
He said that when the prosecution’s main witness Tyrone Da Silva made a disclosure the prosecutor sought advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The prosecutor asked for adjournments on several occasions after that which led to the magistrate giving them one more chance to seek advice on the matter.
Waddell was murdered on January 31, 2006 outside his Subryanville home. Bullets rang out hitting him in his back, face and other parts of his body. He sustained 13 gunshots and died before he could get medical attention. Last August the man’s relatives had again called for justice noting that the police had never charged anyone for his murder. They believe his killing was “political”.
During the case of confessed narcotics trafficker Roger Khan, currently serving three concurrent 15-year sentences, it was said that he [Khan] ordered the execution of Waddell and Allison. Under public pressure, the police here later announced that they were going to be investigating the leads coming out of the Khan case and have since invited the public to provide information. Several persons have also been questioned. Roberts was one of Khan’s bodyguards and had been detained with him in Suriname.
The case against Jerome Parks who was also charged with the De Agrella murders continues while former policeman Sean Belfield called `Buck up’ who is wanted for questioning into the incident remains at large.
