THREE men captured after recent piracy attacks on fishermen at sea were remanded to prison when they appeared before Sparendaam Magistrate Alex Moore yesterday on several charges of robbery under arms.

Particulars of the indictable offences with which they are charged said that Richard Mangal, 26, of Lot 44 Pigeon Island, East Coast Demerara; Eon Sampson, 26, of Mocha/Arcadia, East Bank Demerara; and Gary Joseph, 42, of Barima River, North West District, last September 8, on board the vessel ‘Nandanie’, at La Bonne Intention (LBI), within the territorial sea of Guyana, armed with handguns, they robbed Nandkissoon Ramroop of one cellular phone, among other things to a total value of $20,500, property of Nandkissoon Ramroop;
* On September 8, at LBI, within the territorial sea of Guyana, they stole one cellular phone, a radio set, one compass, one GPS and 19 pounds of fish glue, valued at $280,000, all the property of Parmeshwar Dyal.
Police Inspector Stephen Telford, prosecuting, informed the court that the virtual complainants in the cases employed crew members who were on their fishing vessels at different locations when the accused confronted them with guns.
The prosecutor said the accused ordered the virtual complainants and their crew members to hand over all the items, and then made good their escape; but on receipt of information, the police later went to the home of another person, who is also implicated in the piracy, and recovered some of the booty.
The prosecutor requested that arrest warrants be issued for two suspects, but the magistrate said he could not do so until the investigating officer swore to the information that the two were in his custody before escaping.
However, the prosecutor said the trio admitted to the offences in caution statements, and he asked that the articles recovered be handed over to the virtual complainants.
The men were previously charged at the Georgetown Magistrates Court with offences of this nature.
Prosecutor Telford informed the court that he believes more charges of this nature would be instituted on the accused men, as the reported incidents are not all of the piracy attacks that have occurred so far in relation to the accused men.
The cases will be called again on September 24.