While Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan yesterday said that the next of kin of the 17 prisoners who perished after the Camp Street prison fire had been notified, some families say they are still awaiting word from the authorities.
Ramjattan yesterday released the names of the men, who died after a fire was started in the Capital Offences section of the prison as part of a protest by inmates on Thursday.
Up to yesterday afternoon, the family of Andrew Philander Jnr, 26, of 54 Middle Walk, Buxton, East Coast Demerara, was yet to identify him or confirm that he was among the dead.
Andrew Philander Snr said he received a call yesterday from an overseas-based relative, who informed him that his son was named in the newspapers as one of the prisoners who had died in the fire.
But according to Philander Snr, his son’s death was only confirmed by one of the men with whom he was charged with for murder.
Philander, Sherwin Nero, known as Sherwin Moses, called ‘Catty,’ and Mark Williams, known as Royden Durant, called ‘Smallie,’ were together charged with the murder of Kumar Singh, known as “Mango Man” in 2007.
Singh, 51, Lot 51 Craig Milne, Cove and John, East Coast Demerara, was at home on August 30, 2007, when gunmen entered and started terrorising his family. Singh sustained several gunshot wounds and died while undergoing surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Philander along with others were captured by the police and were remanded to prison in 2008. A trial was started in the High Court in 2014 but was aborted after one of them objected to the judge and the state-appointed lawyer.
Philander Snr said that the last time he spoke to his son was on Wednesday night and he did not complain of any mistreatment or mention anything about a planned riot. “He didn’t give me an impression of a riot,” his father told Stabroek News.
The reason Philander Snr called his son was to inform him about his case, since he had spoken to his lawyer.
Philander Jnr at the time of the murder was 18 years old. He had already spent eight years in prison waiting for a trial that would have started this year, his father mentioned. “He was in front of Priya Beharry and she gave him the fifteenth of this month to return to court, and that was it,” he said.
Philander Jnr is the only son for his parents, who have five other children.
In a fix
The family of murder accused Rohan Teekaram also did not receive any word from authorities on the man’s fate.
“Nobody visited or even call from the prison to say, ‘you know he dead,’ so as our minds wouldn’t be in a fix like right now,” the man’s wife, who did not want to be named, said yesterday.
Teekaram’s wife, who was accompanied by her three children, two of whom are fathered by him, said that while she was aware of the unrest at the prison, she did not anticipate how bad the situation would deteriorate.
She said she and her children’s worst fears were confirmed yesterday morning when they saw that Teekaram was listed among the dead in yesterday’s edition of Stabroek News.
According to the woman, she and her daughter tried calling the prison throughout Thursday but all the calls went unanswered. They even visited various places to confirm his death but were provided with no answers from officials but were told to return on Monday instead.
The wife related that while her relationship with Teekaram wasn’t a “perfect” one and they hardly got in contact with him, she wants answers about what exactly transpired behind the walls of the cell prior to his death.
“We want answers, yes. He is a human like any other, not because he was in jail we must just hear he dead in a fire and tek it just so,” the weeping woman related. “He musse try everything before he dead I know for sure, but he try till he couldn’t do nothing eh,” she added.
Teekaram was charged with murder in April, 2014, after being accused of fatally chopping his brother, Jairam Teekaram.
The other prisoners who died are Sherwin Trotman, Kirk Clarke, Latchman Partap, Aaron Eastman, Randolph Marques, Hillary Amos, Rayon Paddy, Anthony Primo, Delroy Williams, Clifton Joseph, Jermain Otto, Shaka McKenzie, Chetram Dwarandat, Asraf Mohamed and Richard Hubbard.
