Dear Editor,
In levying sanctions on Nazar and Azruddin Mohamed, the United States of America has been careful to also emphasize Human Rights abuse as an equal component of the reasoning and evidence behind the decision to sanction the Guyanese businessmen, so far, local reactions to the imposed sanctions seem focused on gold smuggling and tax evasion and the possible collusion of government officials in these schemes.
US Ambassador Theriot disclosed that investigations into Azruddin Mohamed and others started more than 30 months ago, this takes us back to the latter half of 2021 when the family (and friends) of Ricardo Fagundes were being particularly vocal about allegations of a police cover-up of his March 2021 murder. Accusations against Azruddin Mohamed are an issue of contention in several public court hearings. In their press release, the US Department of the Treasury press release concerning Azruddin Mohamed specifically highlighted the charge that he and Mohamed’s Enterprise were, “…providing direct and recurring bribery payments to Guyanese government officials to ensure favorable treatment in criminal…matters”. This extract echoes Sergeant Dion Bascom’s revelations that he (Bas-com) publicly broadcast in a viral Facebook video. Bacom has alleged that Mohamed’s Enterprise had paid to cover up the matter. Bascom was vilified by Commissioner Hicken and Crime Chief Blanhum who must be having a serious rethink of their position on this matter.
The Bascom allegations/revelations were supposedly investigated by the Regional Security Service and it is also of note that A. It was never made public and B. Mae Thomas was the PS of Home Affairs at the time an unverified summary of the RSS report was posted on the Ministry of Home Affairs Facebook page. At the risk of being labeled ‘Captain Obvious’ I have to suggest that the RSS report should now be made public and, that the Fagundes murder investigation must be reopened with direct supervision of trusted international law enforcement agencies.
Sincerely
Robin Singh
