Two months after important documents were discovered missing in the Nezaam Ali rape case, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum has signalled the police’s intention to reinstitute the nine charges; a move which will result in a fresh Preliminary Inquiry (PI) being conducted.
This follows the intervention of the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
“The DPP has instructed that we conduct further investigations and has given directives which we are dealing with and once complete we will be reinstituting charges,” Blanhum told the Sunday Stabroek on Friday.
His comments came one day after the DPP Chambers indicated to this newspaper that it was still awaiting a response from the police who were instructed several weeks ago to obtain copies of the missing documents.
The parents and relatives of some of the alleged victims have publicly expressed their frustration. The mother of three of the boys was adamant during an interview with this newspaper last week that there is a deliberate attempt to drag out the matter and insisted that the failure of Minister of Social Protection Amna Ally to respond to her pleas for help was unacceptable.
Ali was charged in 2012 with raping nine boys and was committed to stand trial the following year. Shortly after the committal, his lawyer Nigel Hughes filed an action in the High Court to have the committal overturned. This was rejected by the court and it was ruled that the committal will remain.
It was during a visit to the Supreme Court in January that the mother of three of the boys and an official from the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) discovered that the birth certificates and medicals for the boys were missing from each of the nine files.
The DPP subsequently confirmed that the documents were indeed missing.
Contacted recently for an update, DPP Public Relations Officer Liz Rahaman told Sunday Stabroek that on perusing the files and determining that documents were indeed missing, “advice was given to the Guyana Police Force for them to obtain copies of documents that were found to be missing.” Based on what Rahaman had said previously, this was done early last month.
“As we speak we are awaiting the response,” she stressed.
The frustrated mother had told this newspaper that it was a clerk who showed them the case files, but certain documents were not inside. Her boys are now aged 15, 13 and 11.
While fighting back tears, she had explained that it was on the insistence of a CCPA official that the collection officer (name given) at the Vigilance Court sent the files to the Supreme Court. She said that after realizing that the documents were missing, the clerk was asked what the next step was and he informed that the Registrar will have to make a note and send the files to the DPP. The woman said that based on her understanding the DPP would then send the files to court but she was not told for what reason.
She expressed certainty that the documents were removed after Ali lost his bid to have the High Court overturn his committal.
She also expressed concerns about the DPP’s chambers being involved in the review of the matter given that DPP Shalimar Ali-Hack and Ali are from the same religious background. The DPP had been accused of meddling in the case but had denied those claims.
The boys’ mother said that for months she has tried to get the attention of several key government officials. She has written to President David Granger but is yet to receive a response. She also visited the Ministry of Social Protection, while Volda Lawrence was minister and Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan but got no help.
The charges alleged that Ali of 268, Section ‘C’, 5 South Turkeyen, between December 2011 and January 2012, being a teacher attached to the Turkeyen Masjid, engaged in sexual activity with the children, abusing a position of trust. He was placed on a total of $1,300,000 bail.
The allegations of the abuse first came to light when the CCPA received an anonymous tip and officials there began an investigation that led them to the boys, who were then between the ages of four and ten.
The police were informed of the situation and after the boys were examined, Ali, who was employed with the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana, was arrested, released on station bail and subsequently charged. Ali was also sent on leave, pending the outcome of the case.
Circles
“I am fighting a losing battle because is round and round I keep going in circles,” the woman told Sunday Stabroek. Though frustrated she said that she is fighting to remain strong for her boys and to ensure that no stone is left unturned in the pursuit of justice.
She said that almost three months have passed since she discovered that the documents were missing and it pains her that to date there is no word as to how they were removed, who took them and why the sourcing of replacements was taking so long.
The woman said that her boys were examined by the police doctor and she cannot understand why the originals of the medicals cannot be found and copies made. In her case, she said copies of her children’s birth certificates can be submitted but no one had approached her.
She said that she had not gone back to the DPP’s chambers since her last visit because she feels she would not make any headway in her quest for justice. “I don’t know where to go or who to go to. Is like if you going in circles because every time I highlight this thing is a big thing then everything goes quiet.”
According to her, her next option might be to visit the Divisional Commander and ask for his intervention in the location of copies of the medicals and to investigate the disappearance of the documents from the file.
“I would go to him because the people who supposed to be doing this ain’t. So I gon have to go do the wuk because after all they are my children and they must get justice,” she stressed.
She said that she visited the Lamaha Street office of Minister Ally four times and is yet to meet with her or have a positive feedback.
The woman explained that she visited three times in one week. She said that a woman, who this newspaper later learnt was Ally’s advisor, spoke with her. The woman, she said, listened and took some notes. She said that she also showed the official newspaper articles on the matter.
She said she returned two days later after not hearing from the woman and then two days after that. On each of the two occasions the woman took notes. She was told that the information would be passed to the minister. One another visit, she was told that the minister could not be reached and on the third occasion the official said that the information was handed to the minister but she had not responded.
This newspaper has made countless efforts to reach out to the minister for a comment via officials at her office. Weeks after no comment has been forthcoming.
Stabroek Sunday was reliably informed that the minister was recently furnished with a report on the matter at her request.
The frustrated mother told this newspaper that the minister’s failure to communicate with her was unacceptable. She recalled approaching the minister during a function in Sophia and being told that based on her understanding it was at the DPP. After indicating that she could not speak, the minister walked away. “She shoulda already give me a hearing because she is responsible for the welfare of children,” the woman stressed.
She said that at the very function she saw Attorney General Basil Williams and also spoke to him about the matter. She said Williams told her to speak with the councillor in charge of the Sophia area to make an appointment to see him.
“I am not surprised by all of this…There is a deliberate attempt to cover up this matter,” she said. A group of child rights advocates have since called for an investigation into the disappearance of the documents from the case files and said that no one should be exempted.
The father of one of the other boys has also called for an urgent investigation into the disappearance of the documents. He said that his son who is now 18 years old, is now a quiet person who isolates himself from his family and friends.
