Having been freed several months ago, the woman who was convicted of murdering her daughter, Neesa Gopaul in 2010 was back behind bars last night following a miscalculation of her sentence by the prison authorities.
After reports had circulated on Wednesday that Bebi Sharima-Gopaul had been released from jail, questions were asked of the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) about how she could have been freed since she had been sentenced to 25 years in 2015 with the stipulation that she serve 15 years before being eligible for parole.
While it had promised a statement on Wednesday explaining her release, nothing came from the GPS until yesterday when it made the embarrassing announcement that a mistake had been made.
“Today the Guyana Prison Service has issued a directive to recall convicted murderer Bibi Gopaul to prison to complete serving her lawful sentence imposed by the Caribbean Court of Justice”, the GPS said.
It said that Sharima-Gopaul, “was recently released from Prison as a result of an incorrect calculation of her prison term”.
The GPS noted that the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in their judgment had ordered that Sharima-Gopaul was to serve 25 years from the date of the conviction. The sentence in the words of the CCJ is as follows:
“In all of the circumstances… a just and proportionate sentence is 30 years imprisonment with no eligibility for parole before the expiration of 15 years. From this sentence, the period of 5 years will be deducted for time spent in custody while on remand, with the practical consequences that from the date of conviction in 2015, Gopaul will spend a maximum of 25 years in prison”.
The GPS said: “Unfortunately, and in error, the Prison Officials reckoned the sentence to run from the date Gopaul was first remanded which was the 10th of October 2010, and not the 5th of March 2015 which was the date of conviction and on which sentence was imposed. From the clear language of the order of the CCJ, the sentence should have been reckoned to start to run from the 5th March 2015”.
Last night, the prison service said that Sharima-Gopaul was arrested by ranks of the Guyana Police Force and was handed over to the prison authority at 5.27 pm yesterday at the New Amsterdam Prison.
On August 19 last year, the CCJ freed Jarvis Small of the murder of 16-year-old daughter Neesa Gopaul, while commuting the sentence of her mother to 25 years behind bars. Small was freed owing to the finding by the CCJ that his trial seven years ago for the murder of the former Queen’s College student was plagued by prejudicial evidence.
It, however, affirmed the conviction of his former lover and co-defendant Sharima-Gopaul but reduced a 45-year sentence, which had been imposed by the Guyana Court of Appeal, from her initial sentence of 106 years, following her trial.
Small had been sentenced to 96 years.
Regarding the issue of sentencing, which was delivered by Justice Peter Jamadar, the CCJ found that there had been “no fair and just sentencing process.”
It found that the 106 years imposed on Sharima-Gopaul exceeded the life expectancy of a human being and was “grossly disproportionate” and “manifestly excessive.”
The Court said that the sentence, and the manner in which the trial judge went about it, were contrary to the constitutional guarantees in Article 144 of a fair hearing by an independent and impartial court—and to Article 141 as the disproportionate and excessive penalty imposed—was tantamount to “inhuman and degrading punishment.”
While not as “grossly disproportionate” as the original sentences, the CCJ said that the 45 years terms imposed by the Guyana Court of Appeal were still too harsh, noting that it made no discount for pretrial custody nor eligibility for parole as is set out in case law precedent and legislation respectively.
Noting all of the circumstances of the case, especially the fact that it was a minor who was killed at the hands of her mother who would have breached her trust and who failed to act as her protector and displayed no remorse, the regional Supreme Court said that there was justification for those to be reasons warranting additions.
As a result, to its base of 22 years, the Court then added eight years for the aggravating factors. From the total of 30 years, it, however, then deducted five years for the time Sharima-Gopaul spent behind bars awaiting trial.
It ordered that she is not to be considered eligible for parole before serving 15 years, which it said would meet the penological objectives of sentencing.
Following the discovery of her battered body stuffed in a suitcase dumped at a creek along the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, several non-governmental organizations came out in protest, saying that the “system had failed” Neesa.
At the trial, the High Court had heard that Neesa had made several police reports of Small sexually assaulting her.
