With pressure building on the government to take action over whistleblowing allegations by Sergeant Dion Bascom against the police force, acting Top Cop Clifton Hicken last night sought to deride the claims and to paint the accuser as compromised.
In a statement, Hicken said: “Police Sergeant Dion Bascom, has, over recent days, made a number of public, wholly unsubstantiated allegations, which have been given wide media coverage; alleging police misconduct in the ongoing investigation of the murder of Ricardo Fagundes.
“Sergeant Bascom has refused to submit himself to any investigation by the police of his public allegations, nor provide any evidence in support of the allegations which he has made public.
“It is not without significance that Sergeant Bascom found himself personally compromised during an exercise carried out by the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit and that his public statement immediately followed this matter”.
The Top Cop said that Bascom is currently at home on sick leave.
Hicken added: “It is unfortunate that Sergeant Bascom’s unfounded allegations have publicly involved senior members of the Force and other persons. This is of grave concern to the Guyana Police Force.
“Sergeant Bascom’s public statements – made while serving as an active member of the Guyana Police Force – is in breach of the Code of Conduct of the Police Force. I have, as a result, ordered an immediate investigation of this matter by the Office of Professional Responsibili-ty (OPR).
“The OPR has submitted the findings of their investigation along with their recommendations which is now before the Director of Public Prosecutions for legal advice”.
It is unclear from this statement what exactly the OPR is investigating but observers have pointed out that Hicken appeared not to understand that given the gravity of the allegations, the police force should not be investigating Bascom or the statements he made.
Meanwhile, questions were raised yesterday as to why the mechanisms under the Protected Disclosures Act were not activated even though it was passed more than four years ago in 2018.
Khemraj Ramjattan, who was Minister of Public Security at the time, told Stabroek News yesterday that the David Granger-led administration did not have the resources, mainly financing to activate the legislation. He said that there was a plan under the APNU+AFC government to utilise financing from the oil revenues to establish the unit as catered for in the legislation.
“We didn’t have the resources. We don’t have the government wanting to put the resources now that they have the oil monies. We never had the oil money, these are the things we had agreed we would spend some money on… the money only started coming in after we have left government. I believe some should be spent on these kinds of these kinds of issues,” Ramjattan yesterday told Stabroek News during a telephone interview.
Bascom has requested witness protection through his attorney under the Protected Disclosures Act. But with no Protected Disclosures Commission in place, he has written directly to President Irfaan Ali.
Referencing the Pro-tected Disclosures Act of 2018, Bascom’s attorney, Nigel Hughes, in his letter to the President stated, “We are instructed to request, as we hereby do, that pursuant to the powers vested in you by virtue of Section 9(2) of the Protected Disclosures Act 2018 that you establish an independent investigation peopled by regional or international police officers into the allegations of our client and the murder of Ricardo Fagundes.” Hughes in his letter, also requested that the president, in the absence of the Protected Disclosures Commission catered for by the Act, make the intervention and provide him with witness protection as set out in Section 20 of the Act.
On the sidelines of a handing over yesterday of three water bowsers to the Guyana Fire Service, Home Affairs Ministers, Robeson Benn, remarked that they are “looking at what practical and legal and appropriate responses we have to make in effect of the matter…”
After making the comment, Benn stated that the matter is being discussed with the hierarchy of the Guyana Police Force. He refrained from disclosing what position they would have taken.
“We have discussed it but I will not tell you [our position] given the nature of the public discussion and the social media discussion that has been launched.”
Meanwhile, Ramjattan yesterday noted that funding to the support the law was necessary.
“We agree a whistleblower legislation is very much important and the protection of the whistleblower is also important. What we need however is the resources, to send them into other countries… [or other parts of Guyana] until trial,” he said while explaining that as Minister of Public Security they had gotten advice on how best to deal with such situation.
“Sometimes it is the lack of resources to execute these legislative option we have opted for that makes the thing look so ludicrous… it’s like urging to have a court system and not having money to pay the judges…” he added.
Moral and democratic
He however, noted that a government must be willing to illustrate that whistleblowers will be protected. The former minister and now opposition parliamentarian posited that even if whistleblowers are speaking out against government, the government of the day must approach the allegations in a moral and democratic fashion and offer protection to the individual.
“You have to have leadership that appreciates the precedents among your own, where minority rights, whistleblower rights [are respected], even if they come attacking you. You have to make that right in the administration whereby you take care of those people notwithstanding the target is you.”
The damning allegations made by Bascom regarding the stalled Fagundes murder probe, has resulted in lawyer’s letters to Bascom on behalf of Mohamed’s Enterprise, and Deputy Head of the Guyana Police Force Major Crimes Unit, Superintendent Mitchell Caesar.
Bascom is however standing his ground and his lawyer Hughes on Monday wrote President Ali laying out their case and seeking his intervention in the matter. Hughes told the President that Bascom is prepared to testify under oath and he fears that his client’s life is in grave danger.
President Ali has so far not commented on this case.
Hughes further stated in the letter to Ali that Bascom stands by his statements and is prepared to testify under oath. He also said that Bascom has received threats to his life and is extremely fearful that members in and out of the police force will harm him. The attorney added that Bascom is concerned that an investigator in the matter will target him as a result of his allegations, which he referred to as “exposures”.
The letter also noted that Bascom made a report on May 18, 2021, to the Brickdam Police Station about a threat to him by a suspect in the Fagundes murder. A copy of this report was also enclosed in the letter to the President.
Hughes also informed Caesar, who is the Deputy Head of the Guyana Police Force’s Major Crimes Unit; Azruddin Mohamed of Mohamed’s Enterprise, and Mark Richmond, employee of Mohamed’s, in whose name the lawyer’s letters were sent, that his client stands ready to defend his claims in any legal proceedings.
The trio, through separate lawyers’ letters, had demanded that Bascom retract the allegations he made during a since deleted Facebook video last Thursday night and publicly apologise or face lawsuits.
On Saturday, a defiant Bascom sought to question the rationale behind the three men being represented by the same law firm. “How they get the same lawyer?” he remarked in reference to the letters, which he said were all delivered at the same time. “All them men tek the same lawyer,” he later added in the new live video, where he also shared what he described was evidence to support his claims and indicated his willingness to turn it over to an international body to investigate.
Bascom revealed in his video on Saturday that he was indeed contacted by the OPR to make a statement. He said that he had reservations as he does not feel that the OPR would be able to conduct an impartial investigation given that he would have mentioned the names of senior GPF officers.
Noting that he has nothing against the OPR or its head, he pointed out that when the investigation is completed, it will have to be reviewed by a person against whom he has also made allegations. As a result, the investigation can be influenced, he suggested. “How OPR can investigate this matter and call me to give them statement?” he questioned in light of his concerns.
Responding to this claim, Benn yesterday said it is not for Bascom to decide who can investigate a matter. He stated that if any citizen feels as if they are not being given the justice they need they are free to approach external avenues.
“…if he or any other citizens has a complaint they can go to the Police Complaint Authority or go to the courts if they feel that they are being discriminated or wrong treated of not getting the justice we speak of in respect of these matters,” Benn posited.
He went on state that the OPR must be allowed to do their job and if it finds anything incriminating, there will be consequences.
Benn however pointed out that neither the public nor authorities should set out to prejudge the work of the OPR in this investigation.
“They have been doing investigations all the time [and] anyone can have belief of whatever or issues or questioning, but the results from an investigation may affect them. I do not want to talk about an investigation where one is a serving policeman going off on a public rant about matters which are pretty significant and are of concern to the public and ourselves too…”
In Thursday’s live video, which went viral before it was deleted, Bascom said he was one of the officers who arrived at the scene following the shooting of Fagundes. According to Bascom, an individual who was employed as a private security for a city businessman was identified as the prime suspect in the murder.
According to Bascom, he and other officers were able to track the phone used by the prime suspect and the calls he made before and after the shooting. “….They use everything and destroy all the evidence but they forget how… technology does wuk,” Bascom said during the live feed. Fagundes, who was a close friend of convicted drug trafficker Roger Khan, was riddled with bullets by two men outside Palm Court on the evening of Sunday, March 21, last year. At the time of the attack, he was approaching a parked vehicle owned by Khan. An autopsy later confirmed that Fagundes was shot about 20 times about his body. Khan would later say he was the intended target of the attack. The police recovered 30 spent shells at the scene. Sixteen were from an AK-47 rifle, while the other fourteen were from a 9mm weapon. To date, the murder remains unsolved. Bascom alleges that a police officer received $30 million as bribe to bury the matter.
In his half-hour-long live video on Saturday, Bascom related that after he was recently arrested and released on bail by the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit in relation to a drug bust, he received a call from a friend who informed him that people were out to “lash yuh up” (slang for murder) and link him to the drug bust. After hearing this, Bascom said he made up his mind to speak out against the alleged corruption within the police force. “My family [would] lose in three ways. They would lose me, they would not have gotten any justice because they would [have] said I get killed because of drugs and my family would have been tainted. So I had to make up my mind and that was the reason for me to come and talk out. Nobody nah tell me to come and talk,” he asserted.
