…makes formal request for them to come here

A MUTUAL assistance request is to be sent to Suriname for seven Guyanese witnesses to come to Guyana to be questioned by investigators here, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan told reporters on Friday.

Speaking at the Alliance for Change’s (AFC) media briefing held at its Kitty headquarters, Ramjattan in the presence of party members, Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin and Michael Carrington, Member of Parliament, said that Guyana and Suriname have been working closely on the case of piracy on the high seas.

Only recently a team of Suriname’s top detectives visited Guyana to interact with investigators of the Guyana Police Force on the matter. “They are going to help us in relation to getting more evidence and so on because we had asked them for more evidence, in relation to people who we suspect here in Guyana.”

Ramjattan said he will soon make the request for mutual assistance for witnesses to come to Guyana to be cross-examined by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). “I am going to make that request of the Surinamese authorities. They have sent me all that they have done so far on a daily basis that has gone to the extent of minutia in their

investigations- some things were not there but we need some more information before we can fully complete whatever investigation we need,” said the public security minister. He noted too that if the request for the seven witnesses to come to Guyana fails, he is inclined to have Guyana’s senior investigators travel to Suriname to interview the witnesses. “We need to do that [by] ourselves,” the public security minister stated.

Meanwhile, Ramjattan assured that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and its counterpart in Suriname share “a very close working relationship” which he made clear is not limited to the recent piracy. He said too, that Guyana has been in contact with Surinamese police while noting that Suriname’s minister of security had indicated that Guyana should put forward the paperwork as a means of formality.

Ramjattan made it clear that while in the first instance, Guyana is looking to question seven persons, all of whom are reportedly Guyanese, that number can increase based on information provided.

Last month pirates attacked 20 fishermen who occupied four boats while in Surinamese waters. The bodies of 12 of the fishermen who had been badly chopped and thrown into the sea are yet to be recovered. They are Vickey Persaud, Ramesh Sanchara, Glenroy Jones, Tikaknauth Mohabir, Randy Burnette, Bobby Ibrahim, Bharat Heralall, Ralph Anthony Couchman, Rajkumar Bissesar, Sunil called “Paddock” and Olenski Maxwell.

Five of the 20 fishermen are alive, while four had been discovered dead. The killing of the fishermen has been viewed as a “revenge attack” masterminded by siblings. It is believed that the attack is related to the killing of a Guyanese fisherman earlier this year in neighbouring Suriname.