PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee says efforts should be made to ensure that an inquest is quickly set up to probe the circumstances surrounding the deaths of army intelligence officer Robert Pyle and two others, who were killed during a bungled surveillance operation in December.
Pyle, his wife Stacy Pyle and truck driver Linden Eastman died on Carifesta Avenue on December 30, 2015, following a horrific collision that occurred as he was chasing after a vehicle transporting Alana Seebarran, wife of PPP/C MP Charles Ramson Jnr.
Pyle, who had been part of an operation being conducted by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), at the time believed the vehicle was occupied by the children of the Head of NICIL, Winston Brassington.
Rohee, during the party’s weekly press conference on Monday, said he was disappointed that the case has “been reduced to an accident” in the eyes of law enforcement and he questioned also why there was no information on the identity of a second driver who had also been pursuing Seebarran’s vehicle.
There has been no word on the second driver, who by all accounts later transported Pyle to the hospital.
The police traffic department completed its investigation last month and has since sent the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice. Last Friday Traffic Chief Dion Moore said that the file was still at the DPP.
A police investigation was necessary so as to enable a Coroner’s Inquest into the deaths. The process requires that an investigation be done, following which the matter is passed to the DPP, who would then order an inquest.
Speaking about the inquest, Rohee told reporters that it is unknown if the president has assented to the Coroners (Amendment) Bill, which was debated and passed in the National Assembly last month. He said that given the fact that the bill has been passed, efforts should now be made to ensure that an inquest is set up in a speedy manner.
He said that Attorney-General Basil Williams had said that there was a shortage of coroners and one of the reasons for the bill was to enable the recruitment of more. Rohee said that it is not known if one has to wait until the bill is assented to or whether the current batch of magistrates, who are faced with case backlogs, can be used. “So it look as though we gon wait until thy kingdom come to hear from Mr. [Khemraj] Ramjattan [Public Security Minister] what really transpired with respect to Mr. Pyle’s demise,” Rohee asserted.
Ramjattan had said he would await the findings of an inquest before pronouncing on the case.
Questions have been raised as to whether the operation was a legitimate exercise given that SOCU is supposed to be a civilian law enforcement authority and that its mandate does not speak to army collaboration in any regard.
