DNA tests have positively identified remains found in a Brazilian village as those of missing Guyana businessman and President of the Rupununi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) Mohamed Khan.

Khan, a Lethem businessman and owner of the Savannah Inn in the border community, had disappeared on June 22 during a business trip to Brazil.

The RCCI head had been taken off a bus by a group of men near the border town of Bom Fin while on his way to Manaus in the neighbouring country. Five men were later held by the Brazilian police in connection with the abduction.

Newly elected President of the RCCI, Alfred Ramsarran, told Stabroek News last evening that the DNA results indicating Khan’s positive identification were transmitted to his family via the Guyana Consulate in neighbouring Boa Vista, Brazil.

According to Ramsarran, who was formerly the RCCI’s Vice President, Khan’s funeral has been planned for 10:00 am on September 28 at the Rupununi Rodeo site in Lethem.

The DNA samples were taken from Khan’s body which had been discovered on a savannah near the village of Sao Silvestre some 80 km south-west of Boa Vista, and were sent to the Brazilian capital Brasilia for analysis.

Brazilian police in early July had found skeletal remains believed to be those of the missing Lethem businessman two weeks after he had been abducted.

Several items, which Stabroek News understands were positively identified as those of the missing businessman were found together with the remains by police. The body, consisting of bones, appeared to have been burnt prior to being dumped in the savannah and was thought to have been lying in the open for quite some time.

Family members, including the businessman’s wife Linda, son Junior, daughter Natasha Macedo and her husband John Macedo who were in the Brazilian town had positively identified the personal effects found with the body as belonging to the missing Khan.

Among the objects which relatives identified were a gold ring, fragments of Khan’s clothing, a belt buckle, footwear and a pair of sunglasses which they said he had been wearing prior to his disappearance on June 22.

Khan’s relatives on their return to Lethem had been reluctant to postively identify the remains as those of their loved one and had still clung to the hope that he was alive.

Another body, which had been found abandoned in the neighbouring country before Khan’s remains were found, had been thought initially by the Brazilian authorities to be that of Khan. However, it was later identified to be that of a Brazilian. Khan’s relatives who had been called to identify this corpse were adamant that it was not that of the businessman.