The Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has given its advice to police on whether to charge the police corporal videoed beating miners and a woman and her child at Marudi, in Region Nine, earlier this month.
A senior official of the DPP’s Chambers told Stabroek News yesterday that the file was sent to the Chambers for advice on the 19th of this month and it was returned to the police on Tuesday of this week with the recommended course of action.
Acting Police Commis-sioner Leroy Brumell had told Stabroek News on Tuesday that he was still awaiting the file. Continuous efforts throughout yesterday to contact Brumell to ascertain what advice was given and what would be the GPF’s next move on the matter proved futile. His office informed that he was in meetings during the working hours of yesterday and his mobile number went to voicemail.
This newspaper was told that the file returning to the Commissioner can mean a number of things, including that there is not sufficient evidence to charge the officer either departmentally or criminally.
A source said that the relevant authorities have not yet been instructed by the Commissioner about laying any charges against the corporal. “Maybe by Tuesday we will know what we are about,” the official said.
A video of the assault, broadcast on YouTube with the title ‘Police brutality in Marudi Mountains,’ showed a group of policemen and Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) mines officers standing around as one rank beat men who were trying to protect a woman and her child. The policeman, who used a stick to inflict the blows, remains on active duty.
After the video of the beating went viral, Brumell subsequently asked the police commander in the area for a full report and police investigators had been dispatched to conduct a probe into the incident.
While police statements were taken from some of the miners, including the husband of Verona Prince, the woman who was beaten, no statement was taken from her. A relative of the woman explained that Prince had no faith in the police investigations and she wanted to be left alone.
