The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) yesterday strongly condemned what it said was the “unprovoked brutality” suffered by the family of slain cousins Isaiah and Joel Henry at the hands of elements of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) at the Sparendaam Police Station on Tuesday night.
The GHRA said it rejects the “self-serving version” of the events released by the GPF. The police said that the ruckus began after Joel’s brother Colwyn could not produce his licence and defied instructions from the police all the while hurling profanities.
At the invitation of the GHRA, the Henry family – of West Coast Berbice – was returning home from an event at the Roman Catholic Cathedral on the killing of Isaiah and Joel. The GHRA release noted that Argentine expert, Dr. Luis Fondebrider, invited to Guyana to determine whether his organization could aid GPF efforts to resolve the WCB murders, gave an illustrated lecture of the work around the world of his organization, the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropologists (EAAF). The GHRA said that the Henry family, Colwyn, the brother of the murdered Joel, his mother Gail Johnson and Gladstone Henry, father of Isiah, travelled together in a car driven by Colywn. The family of Haresh Singh, the third murdered youth, who also attended the forum left in a mini-bus about the same time.