JUSTICE Roxanne George yesterday invoked the law which gives the court the right to intervene when prisoners rightfully claim that they are denied an early trial without justification.
As a consequence, 16 prisoners,  some of whom were committed to stand trial as far back as  2003, and are still to be tried, were invited to the criminal court yesterday,  where they were questioned by the judge, in the presence of prosecutors. In suitable cases, early trials were fixed for those who had been agitating for  early trials.
Fixtures were arranged not only for the June Sessions but also for the  October and January Sessions in Demerara.
Those prisoners who were brought to Court yesterday under tight security were Aubrey Crawford and Joel Jones for the offence of Carnal knowledge, and for the offence of murder – were Kenrick Heywood,  Paul Bagot, Squince  Mc Lennon,  Shaun Richardson, Khemraj Bhoodoo, Nigel Forrester, Bert Lancaster,  Seon Yaw,  Justin John, Peter Ray Kissoon, Salanand Sahadeo, Ramnauth Doobay, Devon Evans and Rohit Kamchan.
Apart from those who were asking for  an early trial, Senior Supt. of Prisons Thomas , who submitted the Jail Delivery to the Court,  disclosed that there were 132 persons in the Georgetown prisons awaiting trial.
According to the Prison Officer, 98 of the prisoners have been committed to stand trial for murder (7 of them females),  Attempted murder – 4, Manslaughter – 4, Carnal knowledge – 21, Incest -2, Armed robbery -1, Rape – 1 and Arson – 1.