Nazir Hamid and Yusuf Rahaman called 'Kenneth', who were accused of the murder of an orphanage inmate were yesterday freed of the capital charge by a mixed jury at the Demerara Assizes.
They were then discharged by Justice of Appeal Ms. Claudette Singh, who had summed up the evidence in four hours.
The jury took more than two hours to reach their unanimous verdict.
The Prosecution's case, led by Ms Simone Bullen, was built on circumstantial evidence. She had led eight witnesses in an effort to prove from a set of circumstances that the accused were the killers of Rahim Abdool, who left the orphanage on the morning of December 16, 2002 for Rahaman Spare Parts Store at Russell Street, Georgetown, where the accused worked.
The boy Rahim Abdool was never seen alive again by orphanage officials. Another boy, 'Ramoo', who had left with him on December 16 for Rahaman's store, returned on the evening of December 17 and has since disappeared.
The Prosecution had alerted the jury's attention to conflicting statements about the missing boys on the night of December 16. One accused, who spoke to the housemother around 9 o'clock that night, said that the boys were still packing goods at the store, while the Number One accused Nazir Hamid, reporting to the housemother said that the boys had escaped from the store early in the morning of the same day.
In another circumstance, the housemother said that the accused Hamid, who asked her to report the matter to the Police not on the same night but on the following morning, was her boss at the orphanage. He had asked her to report that the boys had run away from the orphanage and not the store, since such a report would put the store in trouble with the labour authorities for employing child labour.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel Mr. Hukumchand, the woman said that while she knew that telling a lie was against her religious teachings, she told a lie to the Police that day because her boss had told her to do so.
She admitted however that she had changed her story when another person took charge of the organisation.
The housemother denied a defence suggestion that the matter was concerned with politics and a row between the Anjuman and the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG).
The woman had also denied a suggestion that the row between the accused and the CIOG worsened after the accused Nazir Hamid sang at the funeral of the former President Mr Desmond Hoyte.
At the close of the Prosecution's case, Mr. Hukumchand had made a no-case submission, which was overruled by the judge, who called on both accused for their defence.