For the relatives of Tiab Gafoor, who was brutally stabbed to death in 2000, when he was just 9 years old, the recent freeing of the duo convicted of his murder by the Court of Appeal has left them feeling as though the justice system has failed them, but they are prepared to take the case to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
A distraught Imran Gafoor, Tiab’s father, said the outcome of the appeal came as a total shock to him; he was never even aware that the matter was being appealed. A legal source has since said that the DPP can file an appeal to the CCJ within 3 days of the decision. If for some reason that deadline cannot be reached, this newspaper was told special leave could be sought but grounds that the Court of Appeal had erred must be shown. The CCJ is Guyana’s final court.
On May 28, Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Carl Singh, along with Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justice Rishi Persaud, handed down the decision in favour of Arvin Shivnarine and Dameshwar Narine, who were spared the death penalty because of their ages when the case concluded before Justice Winston Moore in the Suddie High Court in December 2005.
It was alleged that the duo murdered Gafoor at New Road, Charity, Essequibo Coast on September 11, 2000. During the incident, the boy’s six-year-old brother Fawaaz was brutally stabbed and spent some time recovering in the Georgetown Hospital. Back in 2000, Shivnarine was 15 years old and Narine was 13.
Speaking to Stabroek News recently from his home in Essequibo, Gafoor said he first became aware of the development in the case after reading the newspaper. He said the newspaper revelations of how the appeal went were most surprising. “After nine years…. I don’t know how the judge (High Court) could have made an error.” The grief-stricken man was responding to the appeal judges’ conclusion that the High Court judge made errors in convicting the duo.
He said that in order to seek redress at the CCJ, he was advised that he had to make his intentions known to the DPP who will have to decide if the matter should go to that final court.
“I am willing to go all the way. There was too much evidence in this case,” he said his voice edged with pain.
He said that after the duo was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment at the President’s pleasure (to remain in prison unless pardoned by the President) he wrote to the President in 2006 asking that they remain incarcerated.
The man said that given the gravity of the offence he felt that it would have been unfair to have them pardoned. He said that as a result of that letter a policeman was sent to his home to take a statement about why he believed the duo should not be pardoned by the President.
According to the elder Gafoor, following the incident, he felt threatened. He told this newspaper that the duo was on a one year bond for previously breaking and entering his house the year before (1999). At the time of the murder, they were still on that bond.
He said too that at the time of the murder, only one of the accused was attending school.
The man said the decision was a grave injustice to him and his family.
He said that he has to make an effort to do something because in the end it would satisfy him to know that he tried.
Opened fresh
wounds
The elder Gafoor recalled that on the day of the attack he was selling at the Charity Market. He said he cannot even explain how he felt when he was informed of the death of one of his sons and the serious injuries inflicted on the other.
He said that in the light of everything that he and his family have gone through and continue to go through as a result of this matter, this development in the case “has opened fresh wounds for me”
The man said his wife is “taking it on again”.
The elder Gafoor said he feels cheated because no one, particularly from the DPP’s or Court of Appeal ever informed him about an appeal. He said what was even more disturbing was that the case was called on several previous occasions before the ruling. ‘They had more than one opportunity to call me,” he said stressing that all he wants is justice for his family.
Withdrawn
The man told Stabroek News that his surviving son is still feeling the side effects of his injuries and over the years has been withdrawn.
Fawaaz, now 18 years old, he recalled, sustained severe head wounds and had two stab wounds to the chest. He spent two weeks in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Despite his harrowing experience and constant headaches, he said the teen was able to complete school and is now a student of the Essequibo Technical Institute.
The elder Gafoor said his son isolates himself and speaks very little about what happened that day. He is aware that the duo was freed on appeal.
Attorney-at-law Glenn Hanoman who represented the duo in the appeal case had told this newspaper that he believed that his clients did not get a fair trial and as such were wrongly convicted. He stated that the whole case was based on alleged confession statements made by his clients and more so some of the policemen who took the alleged confession statements were later implicated in the 2009 torture of a 15-year-old boy who was held in connection with a murder investigation.
Hanoman explained that the judge took quite some time to impose sentence after his clients were convicted in 2005 and there was a further delay in transporting them to prison. He said by that time the two weeks’ period allotted to file an appeal had passed. It was explained that the prison would assist convicted prisoners to file appeals.
In the case of the duo, the prison officials did file the appeal although the time had passed.
Hanoman said that several years later, he was contacted about the case and in June last year he approached the courts and was later successful in getting the original Notice of Appeal filed by the prison warden deemed as properly filed.
The attorney on behalf of the duo, in a fresh Notice of Appeal, said that the verdict of the jury was unreasonable and could not be supported having regard to the evidence.
The case against the duo was that they broke into the Gafoors’ home with the intent to steal but came face to face with the two boys. The children were left home watching television while their mother went out. Their father was selling at the Charity Market.
After the discovery of the children, residents formed a search party and while combing the area found some bloody clothing. They later found one of the teens hiding under a bridge in the area. The other teen was arrested some time later by the police.
