Justice of Appeal Claudette Singh will sum up today, after calling on the two men accused of killing former Shaheed Boys Orphanage resident, Rahim Abdool, to lead a defence yesterday. She rejected no-case submissions argued last Friday on their behalf.
Nazir Hamid and Yusuf Rahman called 'Kenneth' are jointly charged with Abdool's murder, which allegedly occurred between December 16 and 17, 2002.
Both Hamid and Rahman relied on the caution statements that were admitted into evidence earlier in the trial and which they had given to police following their individual arrests.
In their respective statements, both murder accused had denied knowing anything about Abdool's murder and had claimed that a woman was attempting to frame them. Hamid and Rahman also denied speaking with the housemother of the institution, Bibi Naas Hakim. Earlier in the trial Hamid had refuted Hakim's testimony that he had asked her to lie on his behalf; and Rahman claimed it was Hakim who had told him that Abdool was missing from the institution.
Hakim had told the court that Abdool had left the orphanage on December 16, 2002 and had gone to the K. Rahaman and Sons store located at Russell and Evans streets, Charlestown, in the company of another resident, Ramo Duke.
According to Hakim's testimony, she had telephoned the store twice after the boys failed to return at about 5.30 - the time she said they usually returned - for a 6 pm prayer session, and further, that Rahman had answered her calls on both occasions and said the boys had been packing some items.
At about 10 pm, Hakim had said, Hamid had telephoned the orphanage and told her that Abdool had been missing from the store since that morning and had further advised her to report him missing to the police the following day. Hakim said Duke had returned to the orphanage the following day - December 17, 2002 - at about 5.30 pm, but Abdool had never returned and she later learnt of his death after someone from Stabroek News had gone to the orphanage to interview her.
Defence attorney Hukumchand, in support of his contention that his clients are victims of an ongoing power struggle between the Anjuman and the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG), successfully tendered into evidence court documents relevant to a civil action brought against Hamid and others by a CIOG representative.
The documents were tendered through Registry Supervisor, Edward Norman.
The writ of summons filed by Mujtaba Nasir, on behalf of CIOG's members against the Shaheed Boys and Girls Orphanage, said that the plaintiff wanted Hamid and others to be declared illegally elected to their respective offices of leadership and for their access to the institution's funds to be restrained among other things.
The matter continues today when the judge is expected to sum up the facts of the case for the jury.