Police yesterday released Mark De Abreu who had been called in for questioning in the recent execution-style killing of Ricardo Rodrigues.
He was sent on self bail moments after a High Court hearing into his detention had ended.
De Abreu’s lawyer Mark Waldron had filed Habeas Corpus proceedings asking that the police show cause why his client should remain in custody. The Charlestown resident turned himself in to police on Monday and was subsequently placed under arrest.
In an invited comment the attorney said that his client was released just after the court made the order absolute. He said that there were no stipulations attached to De Abreu’s release adding that he was not told to return to the police for questioning.
Police had issued a wanted bulletin for De Abreu saying that he was wanted in connection with the October 15 murder of Rodrigues. Gunmen walked into the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club and opened fire around 3 pm. Rodrigues was killed while three other men including Canadian Jean Le Blanc were injured. Le Blanc died mysteriously while a patient of the Georgetown Hospital ten days later.
As with many lawyers of recent, Waldron yesterday expressed concern at the way the police acted in relation to his client. He expressed belief that if the police want a person in connection with an investigation then investigators must make efforts to get that person.
“Mark has several businesses in central Georgetown. The police made no efforts to locate him instead he wakes up and sees his face on the front page of the newspaper”, Waldron said.
He noted that while in custody police just asked his client where he was when Rodrigues was killed. He said that his client was at Parika during this time and he produced a bridge toll receipt to substantiate this.
Waldron stressed that police ought to have probable cause before arresting people after which they can be kept for the 72 hours as permitted by the law. He said that all persons who are detained are profiled and that is unfair.
Meanwhile, there has been no further word on the investigation into the killing. A police official told Stabroek News yesterday that police have found no leads that definitively point to a motive. According to the official as with most high profile killings there are a “lot of stories floating around but police have been unable to thus far gather any concrete evidence in the Rodrigues case.
Based on eyewitness accounts, Rodrigues, a close associate of self confessed drug trafficker Roger Khan, was the target of the gunmen numbering at least four.
“You have to understand, as with everything there is more to what meets the eye… at Lethem, there is a very thriving trade where guns [are] smuggled over the border from Brazil and to Colombia in exchange for dust (cocaine). Some of these weapons are also used here to carry out some of the most heinous crimes and other things right here, right here (in Guyana)… this arms find would have opened a whole can of worms,” a source told this newspaper.
Rodrigues, days before his death, was held in connection with a huge arms bust at Lethem and some police believe that this incident is in some way linked to the execution.
