Omar Bacchus, who had been on remand for eight years, was last week sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment by Justice Brassington Reynolds over the beating to death of Chandradat Hemraj at Bloomfield Village, Berbice in 2008.
The judge had earlier listened to a probation report on the prisoner’s background and a plea in mitigation at the Berbice Assizes.
Bacchus had spent almost eight years at the New Amster-dam Prison awaiting trial and Defence Counsel Perry Gossai said it was a breach of his client’s constitutional right to a fair trial in a reasonable time.