Judge refuses bail to businessman on drug charge
JUSTICE Brassington Reynolds, in the Berbice High Court, refused bail to Salim Bacchus on a drug trafficking charge, after being informed that the case was being expedited in the lower court. The judge was told that the trial had commenced and three witnesses testified for the prosecution, before the adjournment to tomorrow.
Justice Reynolds made the ruling on January 24, when Bacchus, of Lot 138 Line Path ‘D’, Corriverton, Corentyne said he is a businessman who owns 94 acres of rice land and heavy duty equipment in the Crabwood Creek area.
According to the petitioner, he appeared in court on November 4, 2011, before Magistrate Geeta Chandan-Edmond, charged with the offence on a separate case jacket to three other persons who faced a joint charge with the same particulars.
Bacchus said the other defendants were trafficking cocaine which was found in the bow of a boat.
He said, on November 3, 2011, he was arrested by ranks of the Berbice Anti-Smuggling Squad (BASS) and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) at a sawmill in Crabwood Creek.
Bacchus claimed that, in spite of violence used, investigating ranks were unable to extract a written confession from him and the magistrate heard testimony from the first and main prosecution witness, to the effect that he was held on the basis that he entered the boat at least 13 hours after the suspected cocaine had been placed there by unknown persons.
The petition said there is no documentary or forensic evidence to connect Bacchus to the boat or the suspected narcotic allegedly found in it he has been in custody since November 3, 2011, with the Prosecution unable to complete its examination-in-chief of the first of several witnesses, although the petitioner has made four court appearances.
He said his and the joint trial of the other accused has been disrupted as a result of defects discovered in the formal complaint against the three others and, as a result, the magistrate was constrained to release them.
Bacchus said State Prosecutor Dionne Mc Almont has requested an adjournment to make submissions in reference to the defective complaint.
The 49-year-old maintained his innocence and complained that he suffered from a miscellany of medical complications that were aggravated  by brutal beatings at the hands of the investigators, resulting in excruciating pain which is only alleviated by constant treatment and therapy at a hospital .
Particulars of the crime with which Bacchus is charged said he was in possession of 41.856 kilogrammes of cocaine for the purpose.
Attorney-at-law Mr. Vic Puran appeared before the judge on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions.