After being faced with being taken into custody for contempt, the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) Legal Advisor Mandel Moore has been given until today turn over video evidence in the cybercrime proceedings against Detective Sergeant Dion Bascom.
Attorney Moore, who is prosecuting the case for the GPF, spent a few minutes in the holding area for prisoners after he was initially remanded by Senior Georgetown Magistrate Leron Daly for failing on several occasions to present the video as he had been requested to do. He was shortly after granted a reprieve and given until 11:00 hrs this morning to turn over the video.
During a disclosure hearing before the magistrate, Bascom and his attorney, Nigel Hughes, were expecting the video of a GPF press conference with statements made about Bascom by acting Com-missioner Clifton Hicken and Crime Chief Wendel Blanhum to be handed over.
Magistrate Daly had requested that the video be disclosed to the court on several occasions and was promised by Moore that it would be. However, when he could not produce the video to the court when the matter was recalled the magistrate made the decision to have him taken into custody and he was later escorted to prisoners’ holding area.
However, moments after, the magistrate summoned Moore to the court, where she asked him once more to present the video. Moore said that he would be in possession of the video today and the magistrate ordered that he do so at 11:00 hrs today when the matter is to be called. He gave an undertaking to do so and he was then released.
On September 4, Bascom was faced with the three cybercrime charges. The charges allege that on August 13, he used a computer system to transmit electronic data with intent to humiliate, harass or cause substantial emotional distress to Superinten-dent Mitchell Caesar. He was also charged with doing the same on August 19th to Superintendent Chabinauth Singh and the same to Superintendent Caesar.
He was granted his release on $100,000 bail on each charge.
Last month, in a widely seen Facebook live video Bascom claimed that a multi-million dollar bribe was accepted by a senior rank of the force to cover-up the murder of Ricardo Fagundes, also known as ‘Paper Shorts,’ while at the same time accusing the force of major corruption.
The GPF, including Hicken and Blanhum, have denied his claims.
Due to his allegations against the GPF, a review of the Fagundes murder probe was conducted by the Regional Security Service (RSS), which found no evidence of a cover up—an outcome questioned by his lawyer.
