The AFC yesterday said its efforts to have a UK-based ballistics expert flown to Guyana to observe the tests of fragments extracted from the bodies of the three slain Linden protestors is in limbo as officials are now asking that he get a work permit.
AFC member Nigel Hughes told a press conference yesterday that it has repeatedly explained to authorities that Dr. Mark Robinson had no need for a work permit, which will take about three weeks to process, since he is only here to observe the tests.
Hughes had written the acting Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell last Friday and then again on Monday, asking for permission for the expert to travel to Guyana. He said that yesterday Brumell referred him to the Crime Chief Seelall Persaud, who then referred him to the Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee.
While noting that Dr. Robinson is available to travel to Guyana as early as Thursday, Hughes said that he has noted that the police commissioner has said that the work permit is an issue. “We have indicated that this will not be an issue because he is just observing,” he said, while adding that an application for a work permit has since been made and “it is our hope that the government and the authorities will facilitate his early arrival in Guyana.” He said that he is trying to straighten out these issues as he does not want to cause the expert any embarrassment when he arrives here.
“I expressed to [the] crime chief that the process for obtaining a work permit takes a minimum of three weeks and we have concerns about that and that we would really like that process to be expedited,” he noted.
Dr. Robinson, who was described by Hughes as a Senior Forensic Scientist (Firearms Examiner), has years of experience in the laboratory and crime-scene examination of firearms and ammunition; the identification of bullets, cartridge cases and other fired materials; the interpretation of firing marks, projectile damage and wound characteristics; and in distance-of-firing and trajectory reconstructions.
The three protestors, Shemroy Bouyea, Allan Lewis and Ron Somerset, were shot dead near the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge at the start of a protest in Linden over a hike in electricity tariffs.
‘No definite conclusion’
Meanwhile, the Guyana Police Force yesterday disputed a report that ballistic tests on metal fragments recovered from the three men were completed.
The police, in a press release, responded to an article published in the yesterday’s edition of the Kaieteur News, under the headline `Shotgun cartridges with copper-coated pellets killed Linden trio -police’.
The release stated that in the article an unnamed “senior police official” is quoted as allegedly saying that ballistic tests have revealed that ranks firing shotguns loaded with copper-coated cartridges killed the three Linden protestors and injured several others.
It was noted that the article goes on to say that Kaieteur News was told that this was confirmed by the force’s ballistic experts, who viewed the evidence under a microscope.
“The Guyana Police Force wishes to state that no definite conclusion has been arrived at as yet in relation to ballistic tests being conducted on the metal fragments extracted from the bodies of the three men and that the tests have not been completed. If indeed the information was provided by a “senior police official”, then that senior police official was incorrect,” the release said.
The Force added that it was concerned about “the misleading information in the article, the heading of which gives the erroneous view that this was an official position of the Guyana Police Force, and also other misinformation about the Linden situation that are attributed to police sources”.
The release also reiterated that the only persons authorized to make official statements to the media on police related matters are the Commissioner of Police, the Deputy Commissioner ‘Law Enforcement’, the Public Relations and Press Officer and the Traffic Officer.
