Mahaica man gets 18 years for attempting to murder wife

Fazil Osman

A man accused of attempting to murder his reputed wife was yesterday sentenced to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to the offence back in October.

At his arraignment in October at the  High Court in Demerara before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow, Fazil Osman, 47, pleaded guilty to the attempted murder charge. He accepted that on February 24, 2019, he chopped the woman to her head, neck, arms, and about her body, with a cutlass.

Justice Barlow yesterday started the man’s sentence at 18 years. However, she said that one-third is to be deducted for his guilty plea along with a deduction for time served. “It is accepted that when an accused person pleads on the first reasonable opportunity, he should be afforded a 1/3 reduction from the sentence unless there are grounds for deviating therefrom… The court has found no reason to deviate from the one-third deduction and the accused will therefore have one-third deducted from the 18-year starting sentence.”