THE case against Bibi Safoora Salim was dismissed on Thursday by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan who agreed with the woman’s lawyer, Glen Hanoman, that she was charged under the wrong Act – the Racial Hostility Act. Salim, 52, of Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo (EBE), was accused of making threatening comments on social media against Guyana’s Head of State, David Granger. The woman was reprimanded for committing the offence on Facebook between March 1 and 31, 2016. She allegedly posted, “Granger want a bullet in he head.”
It was alleged that she had attempted to incite hostility and ill will against the President by making a derogatory remark. The court ruled that the charge laid against Salim was null, since it did not reveal any criminal offence, therefore making it defective and inaccurate.
Hanoman, during his submission, contended that the police failed to state that the attempt to incite hostility or ill-will against the President was made on racial grounds, and it is indisputable that any charge under the Act must include the element of race.
The police charged Salim under Chapter 23 of the Racial Hostility Act, which states thus: “A person shall be guilty of an offence if (he/she) wilfully excites or attempts to excite hostility or ill-will against any section of the public or against any person on the grounds of their or his race, by means of words spoken by him in a public place, or spoken by him and transmitted for general reception by wireless telegraphy or telegraph; or by causing words spoken by him or by some other person to be reproduced in a public place from a record; or by means of written (including printed) .”
However as posited by defence counsel, the charges laid against Salim does not coincide with the essential element of attempting to excite hostility or racism.