The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has advised that a Coroner’s Inquest be held into the Carifesta Avenue fatal accident which resulted from a bungled Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) surveillance operation.
However, the inquest is to be proceeded with only after some clarifications are dealt with.
This was confirmed by the DPP Chambers last week. Stabroek News was told that the file, which was put together after the investigation was completed, arrived at the DPP Chambers on January 18 for legal advice. After a review, it was dispatched to the police on January 21.
According to what was related to this newspaper, the advice was in two parts. The first was that some clarifications had to be made and the second that an inquest be held.
Contacted last Friday Traffic Chief Deon Moore confirmed that the file had been returned to the police. “…There are points to be cleared up… It is with ‘A’ Division,” he informed.
Asked if advice was given for an inquest he responded in the negative before reiterating that further investigations have to be done after which the file will be sent back to the DPP.
Stabroek News contacted the DPP’s Chambers for verification on the advice for an inquest and was told that this has been indeed recommended and that there was no advice for the file to be returned.
This newspaper has been informed that, in part, the clarifications concerned the absence of several important documents which will be necessary for the inquest.
Army intelligence officer Robert Pyle, his wife Stacy Pyle and truck driver Linden Eastman died on Carifesta Avenue on December 30, 2015, in a collision that occurred as Pyle was pursuing a vehicle transporting Alana Seebarran, wife of PPP/C MP Charles Ramson Jnr.
It had been reported that Pyle, who had been part of an operation being conducted by SOCU, believed the vehicle was occupied by the children of the Head of NICIL, Winston Brassington. There has been no explanation as to why Brassington’s children were being tailed when it would have been known that he was abroad.
Although the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) has said Pyle was on a legitimate operation, his involvement has raised questions about the role of the army in the activities of SOCU, which is supposed to be a civilian law enforcement authority. The Guyana Bar Association has called for an explanation and has urged that an independent inquiry be mounted.
However, President David Granger has said that he saw no need for a full probe.
The case was then handed over to the Traffic Department as it was a fatal accident.
Former attorney general Anil Nandlall had expressed the view that a traffic investigation was not enough adding that the file being sent to the DPP was an insult to the public.
“Someone in high authority is bent on insulting the collective intelligence of this nation by thinking that the public outrage expressed in relation to this matter would disappear if an investigation is done by the Traffic Department,” he had told Stabroek News in an invited comment.
He stressed that the concerns expressed by the public and the organizations which chose to speak on the matter had very little to do with the traffic accident. “It had to do with the purpose and nature of the operation, the involvement of the army, who authorised it and who were the targets,” he said.
Nandlall stressed that what is being called for is a full and proper investigation where all the concerns publicly ventilated can be addressed. “Nothing short [of that] will suffice,” he told this newspaper.
According to what had been previously explained to this newspaper, a police investigation was necessary so as to enable an inquest into the deaths. The process requires that an investigation is done, following which the matter is passed to the DPP, who would then order an inquest.
A Coroner’s Inquest is an inquiry into the cause and circumstances of an unnatural death. It is conducted by a magistrate or a justice of the peace sworn in to act as a coroner in keeping with a recent amendment to the Coroner’s Act. It includes a jury of a minimum of three persons and no more than five.
During the inquest, the coroner reviews the statements of witnesses which are also heard by the jurors, who following deliberations at the end of the inquest determine if anyone is criminally liable for the death of the deceased. The determinations a jury makes include when the killing occurred, where it occurred, what caused the death and who, if anyone, is criminally liable.
If anyone is found to be criminally liable, the file is sent within seven days to the Chambers of the DPP for advice in the form of who is to be charged.
