Police to seek advice of DPP on charges
Stabroek News
January 5, 2003
The police expect to approach the Director of Public Prosecutions tomorrow for advice on what charges they should lay against the three men held by the army on December 4, with a cache of arms and surveillance equipment at Good Hope, East Coast Demerara.
Sources close to the police told Stabroek News that the police investigations were now complete and they were going back to the DPP for advice. When the three men, Sean Belfield, a policeman, Haroon Gahya and Shaheed Khan, were first arrested, the DPP Chambers advised that they should be charged with possession of illegal weapons, and the state counsel informed the court that charges would be laid. However charges were not laid, and the three were released on $500,000 bail each on December 9.
The police and Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj said that the delay was to ensure that the statements and evidence to be presented could support the charges laid against the three. One aspect of that process, they said, was ensuring that the statements given by the members of the army patrol who detained the men and then turned them over to the police were in a form suitable for presentation in court. When lawyers filed a writ of habeas corpus on their behalf, following which they were given bail by the court, the supporting affidavit for Belfield had said that he was on a special assignment. Stabroek News understands that Belfield had been detailed to travel on an assignment with the national rugby team to a tournament overseas.
Khan also did not inform the court that he was a fugitive from justice having fled the United States where he was wanted for possession of a firearm which had been shipped or transported in interstate commerce, as well as possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. The offences are not among those for which he could be extradited to the US.
