Hemwattie Abdulla, 42, who was charged jointly with Surojinie Tirmaul for the murder of her United States-based husband, Abdul Shakeel Majid was further remanded to prison yesterday.
The duo appeared at the No 51 Court before Magistrate Krishndat Persaud on a charge of allegedly murdering Abdul on April 26 at Number 63 Village, Corentyne. They are scheduled to return on court on June 13 for the preliminary inquiry.
This was after defence counsel, Mursaline Bacchus made a request for an early date for the commencement of proceedings.
According to police investigations, Abdulla of Ozone Park, New York, USA contacted Tirmaul, her best friend of Chesney Village, Corentyne and arranged for her to hire two men to kill her husband for a fee of US$5,000.
It is alleged that the plan to murder Majid, a taxi driver was hatched after he was paid a large sum of money as compensation following an injury in an accident.
The man’s relative told Stabroek News that the man had only recently taken out a life insurance policy valued US$1 M. He was a US citizen while Abdulla is the holder of a US Green Card.
Investigations also revealed that Abdulla took her husband to the No 63 Beach where they met Tirmaul and the two males.
According to police, Abdulla had reportedly claimed that she witnessed the trio beating and killing her husband.
Reports are that the body was then placed in the taxi and taken farther up the beach where it was dumped. The two men are still being sought by the police.
Police sources told this newspaper too that blood was found in the taxi and a DNA test proved that it matched that of Abdul. The taxi is in police custody in Georgetown.
The battered body was found around 7:40 am on April 27 on the foreshore of No 57 Village with the scalp missing. One of his hands was also broken.
The woman was arrested on Sunday after she turned up at the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam to identify Majid’s remains.
Abdulla returned to the US without her husband and reportedly told his relatives that he had gone to Suriname.
According to Abdul Haseeb Majid, the brother of the victim, the woman set up someone to pretend he was Majid and to call his father on May 1 to tell him happy birthday. Haseeb found it strange that the caller hung up quickly without finding out about his father’s health.
However, according to Haseeb, the phone rang again and the woman went into the bedroom and spoke for about 10 minutes and came out back laughing and told her father-in-law “it was Shakeel; he’s having fun…”
On May 8 she travelled to Guyana and on the 10th she called Haseeb and asked him to send US$1,600. When he inquired about his brother she gave the phone to a male but he knew that was not his brother.
After that he suspected that something was amiss and made a report to the New York District Police. They advised him to travel to Guyana. He boarded the same plane that she returned to New York with.
Abdulla called Haseeb’s wife who inquired if she had found the man.
She responded that “she went to Suriname and that they dug up three dead persons and none was him and that she went to the hospital and the police.”
When she learnt that Haseeb had gone to Guyana her response was: “why Haseeb went to Guyana and didn’t tell me?”
Haseeb went to the Eve Leary Police Station to make a missing person’s report and then to the US Embassy.
The woman had given her name to the family as Aneesa. But he found a bag at their family home at Diamond, East Bank Demerara with Majid’s passport along with an immigration form she had filled out with her correct name.
In an effort to get Abdulla to return to Guyana, he called her and informed her that he had “found your husband” and that he wanted “to give him a decent burial…”
She agreed to come but although she had arranged to travel last Friday she came on Sunday.
He said the couple got married according to Muslim rites in December after meeting about two months prior.
