Owner of Swiss House Cambio, Farouk Razac was yesterday morning found dead in his Ireng Place, Bel Air home with a wound to his head and marks around his neck. Police have since detained his beauty queen wife, Carolan Lynch for questioning.
Up to press time last night, Lynch who had earlier expressed her desire to bury her husband within 24 hours, according to Muslim ritual, was in police custody as the investigation continued.
Police sources last night said the manner of the businessman's death was suspicious and a post-mortem examination, set for tomorrow, would likely provide answers.
Razac's relatives were adamant that the man died of natural causes, as he was hypertensive and had been unwell for some time. But a police statement issued last evening said the cambio dealer had a small wound on his head and marks around his neck.
According to the police statement, enquiries have revealed that Razac's wife discovered him around 8.30 am yesterday crouched on the floor. Blood was oozing from his mouth and his hands were around his neck, the police statement said, adding that a television set, which is usually at the foot of the bed, was found on the floor. The police said Razac was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
"Further examination of his body revealed a small wound on his head and marks around his neck," the police statement said. It added that a doctor at the Georgetown Hospital opined that he might have died before arriving at the hospital. Police further stated that Razac's house was guarded by security and there were no signs of forced entry.
Earlier yesterday, Razac's brother, Fazeel Razac told reporters outside the Georgetown Hospital that Farouk had high blood pressure, which might have caused an artery in his head to burst.
This newspaper was told that Lynch had left the couple's home around 8 am yesterday to take their daughter to school. When she returned around 8.30 am, she found her husband lying on the floor with blood oozing from his nose. Neighbours said Razac was seen in his yard walking yesterday morning.
The scene at the Georgetown Hospital was one of shock and grief as word got around that the Swiss House Cambio boss had died.
Scores of people flocked the hospital's emergency entrance. Football promoter Kashif Muhammed, freed murder accused, Shawn Hinds, said to be one of Razac's bodyguards, and several other people, some with suspected links to the criminal underworld were at the hospital.
Lynch inconsolable, had escorted Razac to the hospital, and when he was pronounced dead she fainted and had to be revived. Relatives and friends surrounded the beauty queen whose eyes were swollen from the tears.
Sources told Stabroek News that towards the end of last month, Razac was hospitalized at Dr Balwant Singh's Hospital. This newspaper was told that his condition was serious and relatives had said then that he would have been flown abroad for further medical attention, but apparently, that was not done.
Charges
Farouk Razac began to have brushes with the law as early as 1996 when he was jointly charged with businessman, Bramhanand Nandalall with trafficking in cocaine.
It was alleged that between October 1995 and December 1996, the two businessmen conspired together with others unknown to traffic in five kilos of cocaine in Georgetown. Police had said back then that the arrests were part of a continued joint probe by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Guyana Police Force, which had also led to the arrest of seven persons including a Colombian and a policeman. The seven, including a woman, were arrested at the end of a joint anti-narcotics probe conducted by members of the RCMP and local police. They were charged with conspiring with others to import 50 kilos of cocaine into Guyana.
Investigators during their probe had targeted suspected drug organizations in Guyana and Canada that were exporting Colombian cocaine into Guyana through Brazil and Venezuela and re-exporting it to Canada.
Razac also faced charges of tax evasion in 2000.
Razac was before the court along with Lynch on gun and ammunition charges. They were charged jointly with two counts of unlawful possession of ammunition and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm stemming from a November 10 raid on their Bel Air property. They were granted $1 million bail each and the case is currently being tried. One of four witnesses has already testified in the case. Razac and Lynch had been charged indictably initially but later the matter was re-read summarily and they pleaded not guilty.
A person found guilty of a firearm offence on an indictable charge faces a jail term of not less than seven years while taken summarily a conviction could result in a sentence of not less than three years imprisonment.
Police in an early morning raid last year November at Razac's Ireng Place, Bel Air home found four 9 mm magazines, one Beretta automatic pistol and 120 9 mm rounds of ammunition. The raid on Razac's property was said to have followed an earlier search conducted on a house in North Ruimveldt where a young woman, Rhonda Gomes, an associate of the businessman, was living. At Gomes's home, police found: one AK-47 rifle; one Chinese automatic assault rifle with improvised suppressor; two bullet-proof vests (one with Ceramic plate); three fragmentation grenades; one concussion grenade; 1,192 rounds 7.62 x 39 ammunition; 19 7.62 magazines; 77 rounds of .38 special ammunition; 245 rounds of 9 mm ammunition; 20 rounds of .380 ammunition; one round .38 ordinary ammunition; 14 rounds of .30 ammunition; 35 rounds of .32 ammunition; one round of .22 ammunition; 47 12-gauge cartridges; one pistol magazine; one pistol holster and 10.9 kilogrammes of cocaine. Gomes had pleaded guilty to several charges brought against her stemming from the discoveries and was sentenced to three years in prison last year December.
Controversy
The cambio dealer had been at the centre of controversy last year March when the joint services raided his Water Street business and his house following the theft of 30 AK-47 rifles from the army storage bond at Camp Ayanganna. During the search, Razac had been arrested and was kept in custody for three days at the Brickdam Police Station.
Razac had been the helm of the Swiss House Cambio for several years after the business, which started out as a watch repair shop, was handed down to him from his father.
At the height of the death squad fiasco in 2004, self-professed death-squad informant, George Bacchus had told the media that he had gone to the US Embassy in Georgetown and officials there showed him a photo of wanted terrorist, Adnan Gulgair El-Shukrijumah who is said to have Guyanese roots and was at one time said to be hiding out between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Bacchus said then that he was 90% certain that he had seen El-Shukrijumah at Razac's Swiss House Cambio business place, but when Razac was contacted on the issue, he denied knowing the terrorist. He however acknowledged that his father knew El-Shukrijumah's father when he was living in Guyana prior to him leaving for Saudi Arabia.