…to be sentenced June 2
The mixed jury in the trial of high seas pirate Ram Sookdial, indicted with robbery under arms, returned a majority verdict of guilty after deliberating for two hours at the Berbice Assizes on Thursday.
Sookdial, called Kevin Narine, and also known as Ayodhiaram, stood motionless as the verdict was delivered. However, when questioned by Justice Brassington Reynolds as to if he had anything to say, the prisoner, replied, ‘I would like to say God knows, I am truly innocent of the charge’.
He was thereafter advised to make his mitigating remarks prior to his sentence which is scheduled for June 2, pending a probation report.
The pony-tailed Sookdial, who conducted his own defence, had raised the issue of alibi, contested the procedure of the identification parade, and questioned the jurisdiction of the court during the two-week hearing.
In his summary, just under two hours, Justice Reynolds reminded the twelve member panel that the onus is on the State to present a case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Judge, recounting the evidence of Balwant Hemraj, who was the captain of his fishing vessel ‘Shiva’, said, the complainant was in the high seas off the Number 47 shore, when the accused, whom he knew as Kevin Narine and ‘ Long Hair’, armed with a gun, robbed him of a 40 Horse Power Yamaha outboard engine, a barrel of gasoline, groceries, fifteen hundred pounds of fish, and fishing glue, all valued at $1,162,000.
The victim, the Judge recalled, said he had known the accused a year prior to the incident, as he too had owned a boat which was usually moored at the Number 66 Village.
Hemraj had stated, on August 10, 2007, at about 13:30hrs, he was in company with four crew members when he saw a smaller vessel approaching.
He said, “At about four feet away, I heard an explosion like a shot fired, and a person saying, ‘every- one lie down flat, with your face downwards’,” he said.
According to the witness, the other boat was tied to his vessel before the intruders jumped aboard, removing the engine, and the fish from the ice box. He said shortly afterwards, someone called for the captain, and when he [ the victim] responded, the accused asked him to give him a hand with the engine and the gasoline.
In a sworn statement from the witness stand, the prisoner said on August 10, 2007, he was in French Guiana with his relatives, and between January 3 and August 5, 2008, he was incarcerated in a Suriname prison, having being convicted for illegal entry.
According to him, he was deported to Guyana, the day prior to the holding of the identification parade at the Whim Police Station, where he was never asked his name, nor asked questions concerning his constitutional rights.
In Sookdial’s address, he had urged the jury to disbelief the testimony of the main prosecution witness, as it was not corroborated by any of his crew members.
However the Judge advised the panel that it was not a legal requirement to have the victim’s testimony corroborated.