Following the May 23rd fracas at the New Amsterdam Prison which resulted in four inmates being burnt and chopped by a gang of fellow inmates, the family of one of the injured, Kwame Bhagwandin yesterday picketed the penal institution demanding a thorough investigation into the incident.
before the attack
after the attack
The dozen protestors were led by Bhagwandin’s 52-year-old mother Donna Liddle, his common law wife Richlyn Smith and five-day-old son. Their placards read ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ as they demanded that ‘Someone say how the acid and cutlass reach in the prison’, while alleging that ‘Drugs are being trafficked into the prisons by prison officers’ and ‘prisoners are being victimized by police and prison authority’.
The angry protestors made a public appeal to the Director of Prisons and the Minister of Home Affairs to conduct a “thorough, fair and just investigation”.
On Friday, May 23rd, four male inmates of the New Amsterdam Prison had to be hospitalized after they were brutally attacked by what is believed to be a six-member gang of inmates who doused them with acid and chopped them about their bodies.
Thirty-one-year-old Abdulsalam Azimullah called ‘Sato’ of Hampshire, Corentyne; Davendra Harricharran known as ‘Bara’, 28, of Nigg, Corentyne; Clarence ‘Wild Hog’ Williams of Angoy’s Avenue and Bhagwandin, 32, of Ithaca WCB, were rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital following the brazen attack and later transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
According to the victims, the well-planned attack was masterminded by a convicted prisoner known as ‘Shoulder’ who has since reportedly been relocated to the Camp Street Prisons. The families of the victims are also alleging that prison warder(s) facilitated the attack by aiding the gang.
“Somebody was passing on this same prison road the afternoon when they hear the prisoners shouting ‘help, help, call the police’ and hollering how ‘big chopping up going on in the prison’. The person stopped and asked what happen,” Liddle said,