Men put on $500,000 bail each
Stabroek News
December 10, 2002
The three men found by an army patrol at Good Hope Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara last Wednesday night with a cache of arms, were each placed on $500,000 bail yesterday.
Two others subsequently taken into custody were also released.
Justice Jainarayan Singh Jnr, before whom a writ of habeas corpus was filed last Friday by attorneys-at-law Nigel Hughes and Glenn Hanoman, ordered the men's release after the police failed to charge the men by 1:30 pm yesterday.
The judge delivered the deadline when the lawyers appeared before him around 9 am yesterday. A joint services release last week identified the men arrested by the army patrol as 30-year-old Shaheed Khan of Rotunda Place, D'Aguiar Park, 29-year-old Haroon Yahyah and policemen Sean Belfield of Lot 80 Good Hope and Good Hope Housing Scheme respectively.
Another source told this newspaper that instructions were given by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for the men to be charged but this was not done.
It may be done today. Meanwhile, inaccessibility to the men by family members, friends and even their lawyers was reportedly one of the main arguments presented to the judge.
The three were arrested at about 10:45 pm Wednesday night after an army rank on patrol observed the "suspicious looking" vehicle - a blue open-back pick-up with licence plate #GHH 7539.
The men were questioned and based on the answers given, the vehicle was searched, revealing the arms and ammunition and a computer capable of tracking cellular phones.
Police raids conducted on Thursday led to the arrest of several other people.
