FOLLOWING a High Court ruling which ordered that the prosecution’s case in the 2004 offence of receiving a stolen Guyana Defence Force (GDF) AK-47 assault rifle be completed within four months of receipt of the order, Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo dismissed the case after the state failed to produce its witnesses, many of whom have since left the employ of the army.

The order, or rule nisi of prohibition, which was granted by Justice Dianne Insanally last September, was as a result of a petition made by Attorney-at-law Murseline Bacchus on behalf of his client Raymond La Fleur.
Currently on the run, having being sentenced in absentia to five years’ imprisonment on a charge of robbery under arms, La Fleur had moved to the High Court, prohibiting Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo from proceeding  further with his trial, as he is facing five counts of being in possession of ammunition without having the relevant licences.
He is also charged with being in possession of a firearm without the necessary permit. However, those charges are pending.
In his affidavit in support of the originating motion, La fleur, born on June 23, 1976, noted that he operates a grocery shop at his transported property at Lot 28 Vryheid Village, West Canje Berbice; and that on September 10, 2004, he was arrested by police while he was crossing the Berbice River, and then taken to Central Police Station in New Amsterdam, where Nigel Henry was in custody.
The police, he said, informed him that a rifle had been stolen from the Guyana Defence Force, and he denied knowledge of that incident.
La Fleur also recorded that when he was initially arrested, one Roy Lewis of Princes Street, Georgetown, was in his company, and that individual, along with Henry and himself, was taken by the cops to a house occupied by Clevon Thomas at Tucber Park in New Amsterdam. He was later informed that arms and ammunition had been found at the house.
On August 6, 2004, Raymond La Fleur, Nigel Henry and Clevon Thomas were charged with receiving stolen property, to wit, an AK-47 assault rifle, property of the Guyana Defence Force, knowing same to have been feloniously obtained.
They were placed before Magistrate Chandra Sohan, before whom the matter existed for four years because the prosecution was unable to lead all the evidence.
The matters were called on numerous occasions between 2006 and 2010, but the trial did not commence until March 2010; and then the matter was before Magistrate Omeyana Hamilton for nearly a year, but, again, the prosecution was unable to provide sufficient evidence.
La Fleur was of the belief that the delay on the part of the prosecution in presenting its evidence for over eight years constituted inordinate and unreasonable delay, which amounted to an abuse of the process of the court.