-arrest warrants not executed
Despite his whereabouts being known, police have not moved to execute the arrest warrant issued for one of the complainants in the case during which a 15-year-old boy was tortured.
One of the other complainants is in Trinidad but the whereabouts of the teen at the centre of the case is unknown.
The case was called again yesterday at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magis-trates’ Court and put off when the police prosecutor indicated that there were no witnesses. Magistrate Nyasha Williams-Hatmin, who had last week issued the warrants for the three complainants, after considering the matter for several minutes, told the prosecutor to send for the other witnesses, saying that they would start with them.
She also ordered that radio messages be sent for the complainants. She then put the matter off until December. Last Thursday, Williams-Hatmin issued warrants for Deonarine Rafick, Nouravie Wilfred and the 15-year-old boy. The trio was held during the investigation into the murder of retired Region Three vice-chairman Ramenaught Bisram in October last year.
During the investigation, the teenage boy’s genital area was set alight allegedly by the policemen involved in the case and it was only when this was revealed in the media that he was taken to the hospital.
The case drew national and international condemnation with the matter being cited before the United Nations Human Rights Council. An investigation was done by the police force’s Office of Professional Responsibility and the Ministry of Home Affairs had acknowledged that the boy was tortured.
Relatives of Rafick have since confirmed to this newspaper that they accepted compensation to “settle” the matter while a relative of Wilfred said that he had been told by Wilfred’s mother, that their matter was “settled”. The relative said that Wilfred is in Trinidad. However, the 15-year-old boy and his family have vanished while Rafick continues to work on his farm.
The Director of Public Prosecutions had recommended that the policemen be charged. Rafick and Wilfred were also beaten during the investigation and a wounded and battered Rafick was charged with the murder and remanded to prison but later released on the orders of the DPP after it was determined that a confession statement reportedly given by him, which was the foundation of the case against him, had not been given freely and voluntarily. Wilfred was released after having been in police custody for a week.
Three policemen were charged with maliciously wounding the three suspects. Sergeant Narine Lall, Constable Mohanram Dolai and Corporal Oswald Foo were charged last November. According to the charges brought against the trio, on October 28, at the Leonora Police Station, they unlawfully and maliciously wounded Rafick, with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or cause him grievous bodily harm.
A second charge against Lall and Dolai alleges that between October 20 and October 29, at the Leonora Police Station, they unlawfully and maliciously wounded Wilfred.
The duo was also slapped with a charge of felonious wounding, which alleges that they unlawfully and maliciously wounded the 15-year-old boy, with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or cause him grievous bodily harm. This incident allegedly occurred on October 28 at the Leonora Police Station. The men remain on the job.