A Brazilian miner, who was apprehended at the border at Lethem after immigration officers discovered that there were several forged arrival and departure stamps in his passport, was fined when he appeared before a city court yesterday.
Two charges were initially read to Cicero Suarez but after the particulars of the charge relating to the forging of passport were discovered to be incorrect, that one was withdrawn.
The remaining charge stated that between September 12th and December 24th, at Kurupung, having been permitted to stay in Guyana from June 11th to September 11th, Suarez overstayed the time.
He pleaded guilty to the charge.
According to Police Prosecutor Alex Persaud, Suarez has been travelling back and forth from Brazil to Guyana since he first visited the country in 2006. The same year, he was employed at a company in Kurupung, where he worked as a miner. On June 11th, Suarez traveled from Suriname and presented himself to immigration officers at Springlands, where his passport was stamped and he was granted a three-month stay. Persaud said that on December 21st, Suarez presented himself to immigration officers at Lethem and it was discovered that there were two forged Guyana Immigration Service arrival stamps and two forged departure stamps inserted on pages 11 and 12 of his passport. The man was arrested and taken to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), where an investigation was conducted.
Suarez subsequently admitted to the offence, telling CID officials that when he realised that his stay in Guyana was about to expire, he informed a person called ‘Asha,’ who is his employer at the mining camp. The court was told that ‘Asha’ told him to send his passport to Georgetown and she would have it updated. He said that he did what she asked and she arranged for the stamps to be inserted in the passport.
Suarez was fined $60,000 with an alternative sentence of eight weeks in jail. He will be escorted to the nearest port of exit after paying the fine or serving the sentence.
