By Shauna Jemmott

Video footage of the Georgetown prison riot taken from surveillance cameras within the walls of the Camp Street penitentiary is expected to be released to the media, while some of the audiovisual material will be kept back for national security reasons.A reliable source close to the Commission of Inquiry disclosed to the Guyana Chronicle that for reasons of national security the Commission ruled on Monday that certain portions of the video recorded at the prison by surveillance camera will neither be released to the lawyers nor the media, but others will be made available.

The Guyana Bar Association (GBA) has requested a list of prison documents and statements. The application was made by the GBA through Attorney-at-Law Christopher Ram last Wednesday and an adjournment for decision was requested to allow the Chairman and Commissioners, as well as lawyers representing the Commission, the joint services, and the interest of prisoners, to consider the request.

Attorneys for both the prisons and prisoners said they were pleased with the decisions by the Chairman and Commissioners of the Commission of Inquiry to allow the production by prison officials of certain documentation and to deny others.

Those who participated in the closed hearing included GBA representative Brenden Glasford, CoI lawyer Excellence Dazzell, Attorneys-at-law Dexter Todd and Darren Wade who are representing the interests of several prisoners and Joint Services Attorneys Selwyn Pieters and Eusi Anderson and the Commissioners retired Justice James Patterson (Chairman), former Director of Prisons Dale Erskine and Human Rights Activist, Merle Mendonca.

Attorney Pieters told the Guyana Chronicle in an invited comment that the Chairman and Commissioners rejected requests by the Guyana Bar Association in the application for “reports register, log, etc. of complaints by officers in connection with his duty under Rule 172 (and) reports register, log, etc. of complaints by prison officers to Officer-in-Charge under Rule 192 (and)… service record of the senior officers.”

Pieters, in a document presented to the CoI, submitted that in respect to requests by the GBA for reports register, log, and other documentation of “complaints by officers in connection with his duty (according to Rule 172), and reports register (and other documentation) of complaints by prison officers to Officer-in-Charge under Rule 192,” the material requested “should be limited to two years preceding the Commission, if the Tribunal finds the requested items to be arguably relevant to the CoI Terms of reference.

“Documents, materials and things of more than two years old creates a significant temporal gap in the course of the alleged series of events of March 02, 03 and 04, 2016 and that gap in time of more than 24 months in our submissions interrupt the putative series of incidents even if they appear to be thematically connected so that there is no useful purpose to be served in seeking production of twelve documents more than two years old.”

The attorney said those documents are “not arguably relevant.”

An application for the availability to lawyers of “the organization Chart of the Camp Street Prison, including the names and service record of the senior officers,” was denied after Pieters submitted too that “the Guyana Prison Service would respectfully refuse to disclose item 4, namely the service records of Senior officers at the Georgetown Prison on the grounds that the service records have private information related to third parties who are entitled to absolute privacy and confidentiality of their service records.

“The service records contain the highly sensitive personal information of third parties i.e. prison employees including home addresses, next of kin, medical information, and the like.

“It is already the case that Prison Officers homes are being cased or watched by unsavory elements, Prison Officers are receiving death threats and some are off sick due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the critical incident that occurred on March 02, 03 and 04, 2016.

“It is submitted that any probative value that the records may have is outweighed by their prejudicial effect”.

He also submitted that it was only in 2014 that government had appointed a special medical officer Dr. RadeshChandrika, to the prison. The prison was also asked to make available reports by its Sentence Management Committee for the past two years.

The lawyer said some of the items that the GBA requested were rejected either on the basis that no such report existed, and that others were either vague or irrelevant.

He said he was satisfied with the Commission’s decision to ensure a fair process and that the personal integrity of his clients, the prison officers, as well as information which can be a threat to national security, were protected.

Meanwhile Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd, who is representing the interests of Marcellus Verbeke and relatives of Sherwin Trotman and Delroy Williams, said he too is satisfied with the decisions by the Commission to ensure the truth is revealed during the inquiry.

“I am pleased with the approach that the Commission is at least entertaining the application, and that shows a level of maturity, that shows a level of fairness on behalf of the commission to inquire into really what occurred on that day.”

He added: “The Commission has work to do and I believe the task is to ensure that the truth is revealed and I believe that is an assigned task which was given by His Excellency the President.

“When Counsels made the objection, not of the proceedings of the Commission, but rather so that if the Commission is to proceed, and in light of fairness, that certain documents and records must be made available to the attorneys so that we all must be able to have an appreciation of those records, so that when we are cross-examining the witness in an effort to get the truth, that we are also knowledgeable; that was basically the deliberation.”

The lawyer said he had raised concerns about the procedure taken to call witnesses to the inquiry, since he had observed that witnesses were from the Capital A block and were not able to give a testimony regarding the entire unfolding of the events since at some point they were not able to see what was taking place.

“I have made mention to the Commission that what I have been seeing for the last couple of days would be inmates coming to testify who had very little visible evidence to bring in terms of what actually occurred.

“If there was any need for someone or inmates who would have witnessed from starting to end, then we must look to those who were outside.”

Attorney-at-law Darren Wade, who was accepted to participate as a lawyer for several prisoners who were housed at Capital C during the riots, made an application to the Commission for nine new witnesses to appear. He was given permission eventually to have two of those nine witnesses testify before the commission.

Todd stated: “As you go day by day, there are new issues that are arising and I believe Chairman, as well as the other two Commissioners are trying their best to see how they can deal with those issues.

“What is evident is that all the issues may not have been considered at the beginning of the Commission so that they can be put into writing and as you go along as evidence is brought before the commission, you are seeing the need for reviews and I think that we are going to continue to see reviews up until the end.”