Good Hope arms find
Senior counsel’s death delays court martial of Major
Stabroek News
May 4, 2003
The court martial proceedings against the Guyana Defence Force major implicated in the Good Hope arms find have been dissolved due to the death of Senior Counsel Donald Robinson.
Army sources told Stabroek News that the court hearing of the obstruction of justice charges against their officer would now have to be dissolved and reconvened after the appointment of a new Judge Advocate.
Robinson died two weeks ago and had served in the army in its highest legal capacity for almost two decades. Meanwhile, the army officer implicated in the Good Hope arms case still faces two counts of committing a civil offence, namely, obstruction of justice; and two more counts of conduct to prejudice good order and military discipline.
The allegations were levelled against the rank following the December 4, 2002 arrests of three men at Good Hope on the East Coast Demerara, with sophisticated surveillance equipment and a large quantity of high- powered arms and ammunition. Shaheed Khan, Haroon Yahya and policeman Sean Belfield - now dubbed the Good Hope trio - are being tried before Magistrate Jerrick Stephney at the Sparendaam Magistrates Court.
The trio was intercepted by a GDF patrol and it is alleged that an army major intervened to have the men released the same night. The officer was arraigned earlier this year before a military court, but has since pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Sources said the case had had to be adjourned several times since, because of Robinson’s illness.
“The prosecution was about to make its opening statements when the Judge Advocate got sick,” a senior army source said.
