Justice Winston Patterson yesterday ruled that the cross-examination of the chief witness in the Lokenauth Dyal murder trial be aborted after the witness told the court that he was having difficulties lying and refused to answer questions.
A mixed jury was empanelled yesterday for the murder trial of Dyal. It is alleged that in February 2008 at Canal Number Two, Dyal murdered Farzan Khan outside a wedding house.
“I am having difficulties lying,” Umdat Rafik told the court while in the witness box under oath.
Later when asked further questions by defence attorney Vic Puran, the chief witness refused to respond.
After four consecutive refusals by Rafik to answer questions, Puran submitted an application to the judge for the cross-examination to be aborted on the ground that the witness was not participating.
Following this, Justice Patterson spent the next 30 minutes trying to get Rafik to tell the court why he would not answer the questions put to him by the defence. When asked by the judge if he was hungry or ill, Rafik told the court that he was neither.
Finally, when the judge asked Rafik whether he wished to add anything to what he’d already said in court the man declined to make a statement.
The matter continues today.
On February 6, 2008, the then 25-year-old Dyal had appeared before Magistrate Melissa Robertson charged with Khan’s murder. The incident had reportedly occurred on the night of February 2 at the West Demerara location of Canal Number Two.
Reports from the police at the time indicated that Khan was standing with his brother, outside a house where a wedding reception was in progress. The deceased and Dyal allegedly had an altercation, during which Dyal reportedly pulled out a knife and dealt him several stabs to his body.
The badly wounded Khan was rushed to the West Demerara Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
