The two men accused of killing former Shaheed Boys Orphanage resident, Rahim Abdool, between December 16 and 17, 2002, had claimed in separate caution statements given to police that they were victims of a set-up.
Nazir Hamid and Yusuf Rahaman called 'Kenneth' are jointly charged with Abdool's murder and trial proceedings against them commenced on Monday before Justice of Appeal Claudette Singh in the High Court.
State Counsel Simone Bullen successfully tendered the caution statements of both accused through police witnesses, Constable Burton Carmichael and Detective Corporal Simeon Reid respectively, and the documents were read in open court.
In the statement given to police by Hamid following his arrest on January 20, 2003, the number one accused denied any knowledge of Abdool's murder. He claimed that there was a power struggle between the Anjuman faction of the Muslim community and the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG) and he was being framed.
During cross-examination by defence attorney Hukumchand, Constable Carmichael acknowledged that the allegations contained in Hamid's statement suggest that someone had a motive for framing him.
Constable Carmichael accepted that he had not made any attempt to investigate the allegations made by Hamid in his statement explaining under re-examination by Bullen, that he [Carmichael] had not been a part of the investigating team and had only been instructed to carry out the arrest and attempt to get a statement from Hamid.
Constable Carmichael told the court that he has been a serving member of the Guyana Police Force for 16 years and has been attached to the Homicide Division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for half of that time.
The number two accused, Yusuf Rahaman, also alleged that he was being framed.
In response to Hukumchand's inquiry, during cross-examination, Detec-tive Corporal Reid said he had not investigated the claims made by the number two accused in his caution statement because his role in the investigations had ended at that stage.
Abdool's grandmother, Shira Mohamed, said in her testimony that her grandson had lived at the orphanage since he had been nine years old and that she had visited him once every month during that time. According to Mohamed, she last saw her grandson alive on December 8, 2002, and she had gone to the institution on December 22, 2002, and had spoken to the caretaker, Bibi Naas.
Mohamed was unable to say why she had said in the Magistrate's Court, during the preliminary inquiry (PI), that her grandson had jumped over the fence and escaped from the orphanage in contrast to Monday's testimony when she emphatically denied that he had ever committed such an act.