Marcus Brian Bisram was yesterday freed of the murder charge laid against him over the killing of carpenter Faiyaz Narinedatt but his freedom was short-lived as he was re-arrested by police based on a directive from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), who believes there is sufficient evidence for him to stand trial in the High Court.
Bisram yesterday walked out of the Whim Magistrate’s Court a free man after Magistrate Renita Singh upheld a no-case submis-sion presented by his attorneys at the end of the preliminary inquiry into the murder charge against him.
The charge stated that between 31 October, 2016 and 1 Novem-ber, 2016, at Number 70 Village, Corentyne, he counselled, pro-cured and commanded Harri Paul Parsram, Radesh Motie, Niran Yacoob, Diodath Datt and Orlando Dickie to murder Narinedatt.
Magistrate Singh ruled yesterday that a prima facie case was not made out against Bisram, after which she discharged him and he left the court. However, in less than three hours Bisram was re-arrested at Number 78 Village, Corentyne, while in the process of purchasing alcoholic beverages for a celebration he was expected to host last evening at his house at Number 70 Village, Corentyne.
The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in a statement to the press yesterday afternoon noted, that “there was sufficient evidence for the Magistrate Ms. Renita Singh to have committed Bisram”.
The statement added, “The DPP, in compliance with the law, requested the Court Documents from the Magistrate and having been satisfied that there was sufficient evidence contained therein for him to have been committed, has directed the Magistrate to re-open the Preliminary Inquiry (PI).”
Commander of Region Six Calvin Brutus yesterday confirm-ed to Stabroek News that Bisram was re-arrested by ranks after he received a missive from the DPP.
According to Brutus, Bisram will now have to reappear before Magistrate Singh at the Magistrate’s Court at the earliest possible time. He then noted that efforts were being made to have him appear before Magistrate Singh today.
Meanwhile, after the shackles were removed from Bisram’s ankles and he exited the court with the idea of being a free man in his mind, he told the media that the proceedings against him had no merit and were not in keeping with the law.
“This case is entirely fabricated… I plan to sue the state and I plan to bring private criminal actions against these CID who cook up and fabricated this case,” he said. “There must be consequences for this illegal action that’s taking place in the 21st century in this country. Shame! Shame on the coalition government to fabricate this case to run me out from this country,” he said.
Bisram then pledged that his Foundation would continue its mandate to donate $200 million to Guyana in the form of humanitarian services.
Meanwhile, one of Bisram’s attorneys, Sanjeev Datadin, said that the magistrate’s ruling vindicated what the defence has been saying all along, which is that there was no evidence against Bisram. “There could be no evidence. We were saying this all along,” he stressed.
Datadin noted that if there was a fair justice system in Guyana then after the main witness recanted the proceedings against his client would have been dropped.
He also noted that based on allegations from the witness, he appeared to have been coerced on what to say. “Why hasn’t nobody been charged? The prosecutor in this case and the police, he named who they were,” he said.
Notably, Narinedatt’s mother was present in court for the ruling yesterday. The woman, who sat alone on a bench, listened attentively to the magistrate but tears began to slowly trickle down her face after she realised that the magistrate was discharging him.
As the magistrate ended her ruling, the woman rushed out of court and began to cry incon-solably, which led to relatives present outside rushing to her. She was then quickly taken away from the court.
