A report of 200 persons being blacklisted by the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) is a fabrication, police said yesterday while giving a breakdown of those barred from leaving Guyana during the last ten years, which it said totalled 139.
The police were responding to a letter penned by former attorney general Anil Nandlall in the Kaieteur News, a replica of a press statement which had been issued by the same author several days earlier.
Further, the police made it clear that it never received an opinion or instruction from the former attorney general, regarding the blacklisting of persons.
This issue has been in the media for several weeks but neither the government nor the police addressed it, though the alleged blacklisting has been condemned by members of the opposition PPP/C.
At the same time, there have been no reports of anyone under investigation by SOCU or any other organisation being stopped from leaving the country via the legal ports. Since the start of the year more than a dozen PPP/C members or affiliates have been questioned by the unit in relation to a number of high-profile matters. Several have been charged and placed before the court and are currently out on bail.
Contacted yesterday morning, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan confirmed that persons have indeed been blacklisted from leaving Guyana and while he could not say how many or the circumstances, he has asked the Commissioner of Police (CoP) for a copy of the list.
Ramjattan assured Stabroek News that once he gets his report from the CoP, the media will be updated.
According to Ramjattan, the CoP has said that the Commissioner of Information will respond to a request for the names but these (the names) are currently being procured.
Ramjattan said too that as far as he understands it, persons who are blacklisted do not have to be informed. He said in this present instance, he is unaware of the “conditionalities” that “caused this to happen and what are the nature of offences and other considerations…”
He said he will also be looking at how long this practice has been occurring, particularly since Nandlall is saying that he is very much against the blacklisting.
“I will get the list and I want to see it and see the opinion of Nandlall… I understand it was happening a long time,” Ramjattan said before questioning why this practice was still occurring even though Nandlall was against it.
The present administration took office in May 2015.
“I should get my report… and the press will hear from either me or the Commissioner of Police,” he said.
The police said in a press release issued subsequently that it wished to address misinformation contained in Nandlall’s letter.
17 in 2017
The release stated that the police blacklist over the last ten years contained a total of 139 names: 11 from 2008, 11 from 2009, 15 from 2010, 5 from 2011, 18 from 2012, 23 from 2013, 11 from 2014, 12 from 2015, 16 from 2016 and 17 for 2017. “The allegation that 200 persons were blacklisted by the Special Organised Crime Unit is a fabrication,” the release said.
According to the police, it should be noted that this list predates SOCU and the number of names on the list include those from the entire Guyana Police Force, as well as other law enforcement agencies in Guyana.
Nandlall in his letter said as Attorney General, he was “very firm” in his advice to the police regarding preventing persons from leaving the jurisdiction.
“In fact, I did a legal opinion for the Police Force outlining the circumstances when a person can, lawfully, be prevented from leaving the country. I was forced to do so because a High Court judge awarded damages against the state when immigration officers at Cheddi Jagan International Airport, prevented an entire family from leaving Guyana for North America because their names were placed on a list, prohibiting persons from leaving the country, on the basis, that the head of the household was suspected of being involved in some form of criminality. They sued the state for violation of their constitutional rights to leave Guyana. There was, simply, no legal defence. On the other hand, I have no doubt that this current mass ‘blacklisting’ is either done upon the advice of the Attorney General or with his imprimatur. At a minimum, he cannot claim to be unaware of it,” he stated.
According to the police release, records checked at the Office of the CoP revealed that while the force was represented by the Attorney General in litigation brought by persons placed on the blacklist, “no record of any opinion or instruction from the Attorney General to the police was found”.
Additionally, it said, the current CoP would have served as Crime Chief, who maintains the blacklist, since 2007 until his appointment as Commissioner in 2014. “He is unaware of any opinion or instruction from the Attorney General regarding the blacklist,” the police statement said.
The force also used the opportunity to inform the public that the information requested by the Commissioner of Information regarding the persons on the blacklist, “has been dispatched”.
Unconstitutional
Nandlall in his press statement said that blacklisting was unconstitutional.
“Under our criminal justice system and the Constitution, suspicion, at its highest, cannot and does not lawfully equal guilt. This is so because Article 144 of the Constitution ensconces the presumption of innocence as a fundamental right, as well. In consequence, the fact that a person maybe the subject of ongoing criminal investigations or, may even be the prime suspect in a criminal investigation, without more, cannot form the basis upon which he can be lawfully prevented from leaving the country,” Nandlall had said in a press statement released on Friday.
“Any attempt to do so would constitute an abridgement of his or her constitutional right to leave Guyana,” he said, referring to Article 148 of the Constitution, which guarantees to the individual, the freedom to leave and enter Guyana, as a fundamental right.
“It then begs the question, on what basis are approximately 180 citizens of this country being denied their constitutional right to travel? The explanation for this mass abrogation of fundamental rights and freedoms lies in politics,” he added.
He said that the situation was further aggravated by the fact that the persons who are blacklisted have not been so informed; they will only realize that they are prohibited from travelling when they are so informed by immigration officers at the international ports of exit.
“Not only are they being denied their constitutional rights but they will also be made to suffer the public humiliation, pecuniary loss and tremendous inconvenience that will ensue when they turn up at the airport, prepared to leave Guyana… Even their parliamentary representative is denied this information. If this is not authoritarianism, the transitioning into a police state and the most callous abuse of power, then I do not know what is,” he argued.
Nandlall said though the purported existence of a blacklist was made public in sections of the media just over two weeks ago, he is yet to see some form of disputation emanating from the Guyana Police Force.
Concern
Meanwhile Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo told Stabroek News on Saturday that he was concerned by the issue, and the PPP/C was particularly disturbed about the manner in which it was reportedly done.
He said that he refrained from publicly commenting as he wanted to give other party members an opportunity to vent their views.
He said that PPP/C Members of Parliament before publicly dealing with an issue would discuss same with him so “I try not to speak on everything given that many of our members of parliament have already spoken on the issue.” He pointed out too that some of the MPs “have taken some steps to try to secure that list.”
Asked if he was concerned at the report of blacklisting, he said, “Of course. When they [the PPP/C MPs] reflect the concern. I think it is a collective concern that they reflect.”
