London, Douglas did not flee from prison as claimed on tape - Gajraj Stabroek News March 30, 2000 Home Affairs Minister, Ronald Gajraj says he has been assured that slain armed robber, Linden London and his alleged accomplice, Andrew Douglas did not escape from the Camp Street prison as claimed on a controversial tape. On the tape-recording allegedly made by Douglas, it is claimed that their escape from the Camp Street was facilitated by highly placed government officials. President Bharrat Jagdeo has ordered Gajraj and the police to investigate the allegations made on the tape. Gajraj told Stabroek News on Monday that he had initiated a probe of the allegations even before the directive by the President Jagdeo. He is asking anybody who has any knowledge of the tape and how it was made or the circumstances with respect to the allegations made to come forward and assist the police. The minister said he had been informed that Douglas was released from jail having served his sentence for housebreaking and larceny, being in possession of house-breaking implements and causing death by dangerous driving. "All three of those cases he was tried on; he was sentenced and he served his sentence to completion after which he was released from prison." As regards London, Gajraj said, "he was charged by the police; he was in prison; and he had been lawfully released from prison for the purpose of attending court. He never returned to prison so he never escaped from prison. "All the things on the tape, from what I understand, about them being assisted in exiting the prison would be definitely improbable." Gajraj said too that another aspect was that when Douglas went to court he categorically denied that he had made any tape. But the incident to which Gajraj referred was unrelated to the tape recording and alluded to his refusal to answer questions from the police on tape about some related matters. He has since told the court, through attorney, Nigel Hughes, that he knew of the tape and its contents and that he had been threatened with being charged with murder if he did not deny that he had made the tape. Another aspect of the matter, Gajraj said, was that there was no evidence of any injury to Douglas's body as a result of being in police custody. The issues he has dealt with Gajraj says impinge on "credibility and one will have to consider more seriously the authenticity of the tape. "What bothers me is there are politicians out there--senior politicians--who seek to narrate what they call facts and ...give the impression that [they were there] when the tape was made. That is my conclusion because it is only in those circumstances you can say that a particular person made a particular tape. You have to be there present and witness the making of that tape by that person." Gajraj said that he did not have at his disposal the details of Douglas's arrest by the Surinamese police but would have expected that all those who were concerned about the publication of the 'Douglas' tape would have had these issues checked out because as he understood it Douglas said on the tape that "he lived in Suriname; he was in Suriname, and that he had several friends in Suriname with whom he spoke and that he had been in Suriname for some time. How much time? How long? [Was he] there at the time of the Eccles incident and all of that can easily be verified." He said that he understood that Douglas claimed too that there were times when he was out of the country, and that "these are all things that have to be checked." Gajraj said too that the investigation was looking at the allegations made against a number of government officials but that "other than a ghost tape" there was not much to go on. He confessed to not having heard the tape himself but to having had the benefit of excerpts. However, he said, he would hope that the police would have acquired a copy of the tape to help their investigations.