Former President Ramotar says… Decision to pardon child killer based on representation by Mercy Committee – notes Ravindra Deo was incarcerated for more than half his life
Former President, Mr Donald Ramotar
Former President, Mr Donald Ramotar

REPRESENTATION by the Committee for the Prerogative of Mercy, a constitutionally formed presidential advisory body, was made in the case of Ravindra Deo, convicted of the murder of eight-year-old Vishnu Bhim; and this led to him being pardoned by former President Donald Ramotar.

“That body is the one that would say to the President, or recommend to the President, (that) this particular case was worthy of consideration,” said former Presidential Advisor Gail Teixeira.
After a news conference held by the leadership of the former administration on Friday last, she fielded questions on the matter, and explained that Deo’s case had been one of several such cases under review for some time.

The Committee for the Prerogative of Mercy, in place for decades, informs the President about requests for pardon from persons facing life and death sentences, and also makes recommendations in this regard.

Deo, 19 years old in 1994, was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering eight-year-old Vishnu Bhim of Annandale, East Coast Demerara between November 29 and December 1, 1994. He was convicted by a jury in December 1995, and was sentenced to death by Justice Claudette Singh.

Former President Ramotar disclosed on Friday that Deo’s case was the only one brought to his attention while he was in office. “The man spent more than half of his life in prison,” Mr Ramotar posited.

Under Article 188 1 (A) of the Constitution of Guyana, the President has the power to grant any person concerned in, or convicted of, any offence under the laws of Guyana a pardon either free or subject to lawful condition. While several civil society groups have expressed disappointment with the decision, some in civil society have advanced two arguments – one: that the penal system’s role also extends to the rehabilitation of society’s wrongdoers, and Deo has been incarcerated for nearly 20 years; and two: that there is a consideration of the individual’s human rights.

Now 39 years old, Deo was released from the Camp Street Prison on May 16.

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