Defence attorney Glenn Hanoman yesterday asked acting Chief Magistrate, Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus for the legal proceedings against Marcus Bisram, who is accused of directing the murder of a Corentyne carpenter, to be dealt with in Georgetown rather than being transferred back to a Berbice court.
The request follows Magistrate Alex Moore’s decision to recuse himself from hearing the case at the Springlands Magis-trate’s Court.
At yesterday’s hearing in Georgetown, Hanoman told the court that he and his associates who are representing Bisram had been hoping for the matter to stay in Georgetown. This was a response to the acting Chief Magistrate indicating that she would be transferring the matter back to the Springlands Magistrate’s Court.
However, a decision could not be made on which magistrate would be hearing the matter. “We were hoping the matter would not be transferred,” Hanoman responded, while also noting the difficulty in choosing a magistrate for the case, which is also delaying the proceedings. “Everybody seems to want to wash their hands of this matter,” he observed.
Hanoman also said that he was yet to be told of the reasons for the magistrate recusing himself.
State Prosecutor Stacy Goodings, however, indicated that reason for the recusal would not be related in the court. She told the magistrate that she would give the defence a copy of the reason after she showed it to the court.
After the full disclosure was made by the prosecutor, as was requested by the defence during the last hearing of the matter in December at Springlands, when the magistrate recused himself, the acting Chief Magistrate told the court that the matter would be adjourned until January 15th, when a decision would be made on where the matter would be heard onwards.
Bisram, was extradited to Guyana late last year and is presently remanded to prison after he was formally charged with procuring and commanding the murder of Faiyaz Narinedatt in 2016. He is charged with counselling, procuring and commanding Harri Paul Parsram, Radesh Motie, Niran Yacoob, Diodath Datt and Orlando Dickie to murder Narinedatt between 31 October, 2016 and 1 November, 2016, at Number 70 Village, Corentyne.
