A West Berbice labourer who earlier this month pleaded guilty to the 2019 murder of a man whom he fatally struck with an iron bar was yesterday sentenced to thirty years in prison at the High Court in Berbice.
Kareem Charles, a labourer of Bennett Dam, Rosignol, West Bank Berbice, earlier this month appeared before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow at the High Court in Berbice where he entered his guilty plea.
Charles in March 2019, was charged with murdering Arshad Ali on March 1, 2019.
Justice Barlow sentenced Charles to thirty years in prison with the possibility of parole after completing twenty-one years.
Four years is to be deducted from his sentence for his guilty plea, while five years will be deducted for time spent in remand.
Additionally, it was ordered that Charles is to participate in skills training and anger management while in prison.
Ali was a factory worker at the Blairmont Sugar Estate and his wife had given birth hours after he was murdered.
According to information gathered, the accused had a dispute with one of Ali’s in-laws some time ago. The dispute reached the magistrate’s court and the suspect was eventually sentenced. He was reportedly released from prison a week before he allegedly murdered Ali.
Ali was on his way to visit his pregnant wife at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital, when the suspect reportedly ran up to him and dealt him a blow to the head with an iron bar.
A post-mortem examination revealed that Ali, 25, of Bennett Dam, died from shock and haemorrhaging due to blunt force trauma to his head.
Ali’s uncle, Mohamed Ahmad had relayed that his nephew completed building his own house for his family two months prior. He had said the young couple would have celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary the following week.
