WITH JEUNE BAILEY VANKERIC

Fugitive Samuel Fable recaptured by Surinamese police

AFTER being on the run for seven years, murder accused Samuel Fable, alias John Fable and John Simpson, of Fyrish and Alness Villages on the Corentyne, and of Angoy’s Avenue on the eastern fringes of New Amsterdam, appeared before New Amsterdam Magistrate Rhondel Weaver charged with escaping from lawful custody.

He was recaptured along the Anton Dragtenweg in Paramaribo in neighbouring Suriname on June 21 when officers of the Surinamese police SWAT team shot him in the leg after a confrontation in which he had resisted arrest.

The Guyanese national was being sought by the judicial authorities in Suriname for allegedly committing an armed robbery. The Suriname Police Force had issued a statement to the effect that Fable, alias Sammy Griffith, was wanted in his native country Guyana.
Fable was not required to plead to the charge, instituted by Detective Constable Mohammad.
Particulars of the offence are that on February 15, 2007, while being in the lawful custody of Police Corporal 13312 Blair, Fable escaped from Blair’s custody.

On the day in question, Fable was among three prisoners who were being transported from the Whim Magistrate’s Court when they escaped from the enclosed police vehicle at about 15:30hrs while in the vicinity of the New Amsterdam Technical Institute.

Fable had allegedly cut the lock from inside the vehicle, and jumped out of the van immediately after it had exited the Canje River Bridge. Cops pursuing Fable and his accomplices, Deryck Busjit and Gavin Balkissoon, were prevented from opening fire on the escapees because students were leaving a nearby primary school which had just dismissed classes.

The fugitives were briefly spotted in the neighbouring residential area of Nurseville, just east of the Canje Bridge, but thereafter they fled up the Canje Creek. Police had recovered their footwear and clothing along the bank of the Canje River.

Apart from the newly instituted charge of escape from lawful custody, Fable faces the charge of murder committed on 27-year-old Gangaram Busjit at Liverpool, Corentyne. Reports are that Busjit, a butcher, awoke during the early hours of a morning and went to an outhouse located a stone’s throw from his home, where he was subsequently shot several times.

The unrepresented Fable is to return to the New Amsterdam Court on August 4.