Last ditch effort underway to save Yasseen, Thomas
By Courtney Jones
The families of convicted Essequibo murderers Abdool Salim Yasseen and Noel Thomas are making frantic last ditch efforts to avert their execution scheduled for tomorrow at 8:00 am. Thomas and Yasseen have been sentenced to hang for the murder of Yasseen's younger brother, Abdool Kaleem Yasseen who was shot to death at home in his bed at Riverstown, Essequibo Coast on the night of March 18, 1987. Director of Prisons, Dale Erskine, had confirmed that the Execution Warrants signed by President Bharrat Jagdeo were read to Thomas and Yasseen on Thursday. Stabroek News understands that up to late yesterday afternoon Yasseen's parents were still trying to work through the judicial process to get a stay of execution for the two men. The Sunday Mirror, organ of the ruling PPP said President Jagdeo "had signed the relevant warrant for the execution of the death penalty, or the resumption of hangings in Guyana." It said that President Jagdeo's decision came amid the recent spate of gruesome crimes that has shaken the nation, "the government's initial hesitation to invoke the death penalty" and the fact that it was constrained to invoke the death penalty by the international human rights convention. Senior Counsel Doodnauth Singh told Stabroek News again yesterday, that he had indicated to the Yasseen family that he had not changed his position that recourse to the "judicial process at this time would not serve any useful purpose." Singh said that the strategy now would be to bring pressure to bear on the government through international, regional and local human rights groups and organisations. The London-based international human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has already issued a statement describing the scheduled execution of Thomas and Yasseen as "a flagrant breach of Guyana's obligation under international law." Alim Hossein, Amnesty International's representative in Guyana, told Stabroek News that the local chapter stands fully behind the statement from London regarding the execution of the two men. But he noted that the local chapter could not make any statement on its own regarding the execution since it had to be guided by its parent body in London which has been actively involved in the case. Meanwhile, yesterday Stabroek News reported inaccurately that the issue of whether former attorney general Bernard De Santos should appear on behalf of the state having defended Yasseen in the High Court and Appeal Court and being Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy, was eventually settled in De Santos's favour. A check with Justice Carl Singh yesterday revealed that a special panel chaired by then chancellor, Kenneth George, and including Senior Counsel Miles Fitzpatrick, who was appointed special justice of appeal, and Justice Singh, who was taken to the Court of Appeal as an addition judge under the provisions of the constitution had had reservations about De Santos's links with the case given his position on the Mercy Council. Justice Singh said that the court was of the view that the fact that De Santos was on the Mercy Council created a real likelihood of bias. "The court found that his presence on the Advisory Council gave rise to the impression that justice was not done in the case of Yasseen and Thomas," Justice Singh said in telephone interview with this newspaper. According to Justice Singh the court felt that De Santos would, as president of the council, have been influenced by pronouncements made by then President Cheddi Jagan that condemned men should hang. He said that as a consequence it was the unanimous ruling of the court that the order by Jagan that Thomas and Yasseen should hang should have been rescinded. The decision of that special court has since been published in the United Kingdom's Interrights, the publication of a prominent human rights group. Thomas and Yasseen were found guilty of the murder of Yasseen's younger brother at the Essequibo Session of the High Court in April 1988.
|