–DPP clarifies
Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali-Hack, SC, has laid out the legal reasoning behind her decision to advise murder charges against three men in the MV Barima ferry disaster, stating plainly that the newly announced Commission of Inquiry “will not affect the prosecution of the charge instituted” and that both processes “can proceed simultaneously.”
In a statement invoking the independent authority of her office under Article 187 of the Constitution, which insulates the DPP from “the direction and control of any other person or authority”, the DPP confirmed her review of the Guyana Police Force’s investigation file led her to advise murder charges against Captain Kevin Price, Chief Mate Rondel Dwayne Roberts, and Delon Granderson, the Goods Superintendent of the Transport and Harbours Department.
She said the decision followed careful weighing of the evidence, relevant legal principles, and case law from the United Kingdom, other Commonwealth jurisdictions and the European Court of Human Rights, together with public policy considerations.
Anticipating questions about how a criminal case and a presidential inquiry can coexist, the DPP pointed to two recent examples where Guyana did exactly that: the 2018 Berbice piracy prosecution and the fraud charges stemming from the 2020 regional and general elections. Both, she noted, proceeded even as related inquiries or reviews continued elsewhere.
Acknowledging what she called the “unprecedented magnitude” of the MV Barima tragedy and the intense public interest it has generated, she said the prosecution would move forward “with due consideration of the work of the Commission of Inquiry,” rather than waiting on it.
The Commission of Inquiry the DPP addressed was announced by President Irfaan Ali, who appointed a five-member panel of regional and international experts in law, maritime engineering, marine safety and maritime operations, to be chaired by Justice Godfrey Phillip Smith of Belize.
That commission is expected to recommend legislative, regulatory, institutional and operational reforms to strengthen Guyana’s maritime safety framework; this is a separate, forward-looking mandate the DPP’s statement takes pains to distinguish from the backward-looking criminal case now before the courts.
The case centers on the sinking of the MV Barima that capsized after being hit by a wave while traveling from Georgetown to Port Kaituma on the night of July 18. Of at least 179 passengers and 17 crew aboard, 73 bodies have been recovered, while 76 persons were rescued, making it the deadliest maritime disaster in the country’s history.
Investigators have also pointed to a discrepancy that is likely to feature in the criminal proceedings: the official manifest listed only 133 passengers, far fewer than the roughly 179 people believed to have been aboard.
The captain and a crew member were detained after testing positive for marijuana in the disaster’s aftermath.
With the DPP’s advice now given, the matter moves to the Guyana Police Force to formally charge the three men, setting up a criminal case that, by the DPP’s own account, will run on its own track, independent of, but alongside, the international commission now being assembled to determine what went wrong.
