ATTORNEY Horatio Edmondson, who has his chamber in West Berbice, was on Friday awarded damages in the sum of $1M for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.
The ruling was handed down by Justice Navindra Singh during a sitting of the Civil Court in New Amsterdam. Mr. Edmondson was arrested by the police following an incident stemming from a land dispute between himself and some residents of Ithaca at Shumaker’s Lust on the outskirts of the West Bank Berbice village, on April 17th 2016 last.
The respondents were Mr. Ian Amsterdam, Assistant Commissioner of Police; Ryan Caesar, a Corporal of Police and Attorney General of Guyana. His constitutional motion was presented by Attorney-at-law Mr. Ramesh Rajkumar in association with Attorney-at-law Mr. Mursalene Bacchus.
During the incident, Edmondson was lashed in the head with a piece of wood by one member of an angry mob. Attorney Lloyd Thomas who was present at Shumaker’s Lust when the incident stemming from the land dispute occurred, had submitted an affidavit on the matter.
In his motion, Edmondson complained that the assistant commissioner and the corporal had contravened his fundamental rights of free movement guaranteed under Article 148 (1) of the Constitution of Guyana, when on April 17th as members of the Police Force, Caesar acting under the instructions of Assistant Commissioner of Police Amsterdam arrested him at the New Amsterdam Hospital, took him to the Central Police Station and detained him there. Justice Singh ruled that Edmondson had been unlawfully arrested and detained. He ordered the respondents to pay to Edmondson $900, 000 in damages plus $100,000 in costs.