THE five men accused of being responsible for the deaths of the 12 victims of the 2008 Bartica massacre were yesterday committed to stand trial in the High Court.
Magistrate Fazil Azeez signed the committal warrants after ruling that a prima facie case had been made out against them. Mark Williams also known as Royden Williams, Celbert Reece nicknamed ‘Chi Chi’, Dennis Williams alias ‘Anaconda’, Michael Caesar called ‘Capone’ and Roger Simon alias ‘Goat man’, are all charged with unlawfully killing Irving Ferreira, Edwin Gilkes, Dexter Adrian, Zaheer Zakir, Shane Fredericks, Ron Osborne, Deonarine Singh, Ronald Gomes, Ashraf Khan, Abdool Yasin and Errol and Baldeo Singh on February 17, 2008.
At the conclusion, Magistrate Azeez commended Special Prosecutor K. Juman-Yassin and the defence team on the successful completion of the preliminary inquiry (PI), in less than 10 months since the hearing began.
The magistrate said it is good to know that the PI has been completed, given the fact that most such pre-trial hearings are dragged on and on.
He said a total of 37 witnesses testified, including civilians, relatives of the deceased, experts and the police and enough evidence was presented against the accused.
Magistrate Azeez also pointed out that the committal does not determine whether the accused are guilty or not.
He explained to them that they will be presented to a judge and jury in the High Court where it would be decided whether or not they are guilty.
Asked, individually, if they had anything to say, Royden Williams and Caesar declined. Simon said he is innocent but will reserve his witnesses for the High Court.
Mark and Dennis Williams were, on March 4, 2011, each sentenced to three years imprisonment for the December 28, 2008 attempt to escape from the Camp Street Prison in Georgetown.
On the night of February 17, 2008, at approximately 21:40 hrs, about 20 gunmen invaded Bartica, slaughtering the dozen people, including three policemen, during an hour long rampage.
It was reported that the shooters attacked the police station first, killing three ranks and freeing prisoners, then took the vehicle assigned there and went terrorising the community and murdering nine others.