Is it the end of the torture teen case now that the two policemen involved have had the charge against them of wounding the 15-year-old dismissed by the court? Will Sergeant Narine Lall and Constable Mohanram Dolai face disciplinary hearings by the Guyana Police Force (GPF)?
Commissioner of Police Henry Greene told Stabroek News on Friday that he could not say what would happen now as it relates to disciplining Lall and Dolai. The commissioner said that following an investigation into the torture reports by GPF’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) the two policemen were interdicted. Despite this disciplinary measure, he said, Lall and Dolai are still serving members of GPF.
In instances where such a court case is dismissed against a policeman, Greene said, the case is usually forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) a second time for advice on what disciplinary measures should be taken against the rank. When asked how long such action normally takes the commissioner did not respond.
Head of the Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Assistant Commissioner Seelall Persaud, like his superior, did not provide much detail when questioned about what action the GPF will take with regard to disciplining the men.
Early last week – when asked whether a second investigation would be conducted by OPR or CID to determine what disciplinary action will be taken against Dolai and Lall – the crime chief said the report was already done. He was referring to the earlier report which was generated following an investigation by OPR and based on which the DPP advised that charges be laid against Dolai and Lall.
The investigation, according to Persaud, was a joint effort between OPR and CID and he did not see a need for a second investigation to be conducted. In fact, Persaud pointed out that any effort by GPF to conduct another investigation to determine disciplinary action will most likely have the same outcome as the court case. Witnesses, he said, will most likely not show up either.
Two Fridays ago, Magistrate Nyasha Williams-Hatmin dismissed the case at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrates’ Court after witnesses failed to attend court. Lall and Dolai had been charged jointly with felonious wounding. The charge alleged 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, 2010 at the Leonora Police Station.
Prior to the DPP advising the joint felonious wounding charge against Lall and Dolai, the OPR report had found that the men injured and tortured the teen boy by pouring methylated spirits on his genital area and setting it alight. The same report had resulted in Corporal Oswald Foo being charged with wounding another prisoner who was taken into custody along with the teen; Police surgeon Dr Mahendra Chand, who the report said treated the injured teen following the torture, was disciplined for his part in the incident.
Several others, including the then D Division Commander Paulette Morrison, were disciplined. Morrison was demoted and transferred. She has since retired from the force.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had also publicly acknowledged that the teen had been tortured by policemen.
Police Discipline Act or OPR
The same findings from the report which resulted in the DPP advising charges against Lall, Dolai and Foo; and Morrison and Chand being disciplined, a legal source told Stabroek News, is enough for GPF to use in disciplining Lall and Dolai.
There is no need, the source stressed, for the report to be forwarded to the DPP a second time for any advice as the commissioner told Stabroek News. Now that the court case has been dismissed, the source explained, police can discipline Dolai and Lall based on the findings of the OPR report.
Assistant Commissioner Mohamed Jameer, who is the officer-in-charge of OPR, could not be reached for a comment. Several efforts were made to contact Jameer at his office.
Crime Chief Persaud, when asked whether the men could be disciplined based on those findings, had only responded that ranks had been disciplined based on the report.
The uncertainty about the fates of Lall and Dolai has caused outrage among human rights activists and other concerned organisations and members of society. Despite this the GPF has not made a move to address the matter.
The OPR was established in 1997 and commenced operations two years later. One of its main objectives, according to the force’s website www.guyanapoliceforce.org, is to investigate complaints of alleged misconduct made against members of the GPF which breaches the Police Discipline Act. In this case OPR as established earlier did investigate the torture allegations, a report was generated and action taken.
Other objectives of the OPR are to: monitor investigations of Personnel Complaints conducted by Division or Branch personnel; perform its duties and responsibility promptly, objectively and effectively in order to clear the innocent and facilitate administration of discipline for the guilty; work to increase levels of public confidence in the integrity and professionalism of the GPF; develop and maintain the trust and respect of members of the GPF in the process by which these investigations are conducted and supervised; ensure that no action is ever to be taken in connection with any personnel investigation, which adversely affects the human rights or human dignity of any person.
The Police Discipline Act (Chapter 17:01 Part Three Section (4) (l) (ii) of the Laws of Guyana) states: “Any member of the Force (other than the Commissioner)…is guilty of any unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority, that is to say uses any unnecessary violence to any prisoner, or other person with whom he may be brought into contact in the execution of his duty”. Lall and Dolai were both in breach of this section of the act as found by the OPR report.
Further Section (5) (1) of the same act states: “Every alleged commission of an offence against discipline under this Act shall be investigated as soon as practicable by a member of the Force not below the rank of sergeant and of higher rank than the member of the Force who is alleged to have committed the offence.” The act further empowers the Police Service Commission, in addition to a number of other disciplinary actions, to dismiss the rank for breaching the Police Discipline Act.
The Commissioner is also given disciplinary powers to deal with ranks as well.
Injustice
Leader of the opposition PNCR Robert Corbin told reporters at the party’s weekly press conference on Friday that justice has been denied to the victim (the teen) “of this grave act of inhumanity”.
When asked for a comment on the dismissal of the case against Lall and Dolai the opposition leader said: “I think it is a very peculiar character and as a lawyer myself I am not familiar with the type of submissions that were made… whether there have been errors in the preparation of the case or the submission of the matter before the judge. I hope that when I review that at a personal level to make a fuller statement than that.”
Corbin added that the case is a “travesty” and said: “I am fully in agreement that that should happen. This is not a matter that I believe is concluded”.
Meanwhile, in a statement on Thursday the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) condemned the dismissal of the court case.
GHRA believes that the “details of the case are beyond dispute” and sees the dismissal of the case as a collapse of the justice system and a failure of the GPF.
