Tag: trial

Trial opens for Berbice contractor accused of raping minor

Posted on by Aliyah Persaud

A 12-member jury was empanelled on Tuesday at the Berbice High Court as the trial of a 40-year-old contractor accused of raping a child got underway.
​The accused, Dexter Pheledelphia (also known as Dexter Clarke), has been charged with the rape of a child under the age of 16, contrary to the law. The matter is being heard before Justice Deborah Kumar-Chetty.
​The court heard that the alleged offence occurred on August 6, 2016, in Berbice and involved the sexual penetration of a 12-year-old child. Pheledelphia pleaded not guilty to the charge.
​He is being represented by Attorney-at-Law Kevin Morgan of the Guyana Legal Aid Clinic under state assignment. The prosecution is led by State Counsel Marisa Edwards.
​In her address to the jury, Justice Kumar-Chetty advised the 12 jurors to carefully consider the evidence presented during the trial and to determine whether the accused is guilty or not guilty based solely on that evidence.
​The court was informed that several witnesses are expected to testify, including three residents, three police constables, and one medical doctor. Justice Kumar-Chetty indicated that the empanelled jury will serve for the duration of the trial, which is scheduled to continue on February 9, 2026.

Prisoner committed to stand trial for murder found hanging in Lusignan Prison

Posted on by Kayleigh Carter

A prisoner committed to stand trial for murder was found hanging in the washroom of a Lusignan Prison building this afternoon, the Guyana Prison Service said.

Feroze Bhagwandin, of Tuschen Housing Scheme, was discovered unresponsive by prison officers at around 14:15 hrs in Building Three, with a clothesline rope tied around his neck.

According to a release, prison staff raised an alarm and rendered immediate assistance. Medical officers were summoned and confirmed Bhagwandin was unresponsive. He was transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), where he was pronounced dead by Dr. Baksh.

Authorities said no marks of violence were found on the body.

According to the Officer-in-Charge at Lusignan Prison, Bhagwandin underwent a medical assessment upon his admission on Aug. 8, 2022, and was not deemed at risk of self-harm or suicide. “There were no concerns for his welfare,” the officer noted.

An investigation has been launched by the police and prison service. A post-mortem examination is expected next week to determine the cause of death.

The inmate’s sister-in-law has been notified, and the prison’s Inmates’ Welfare Department will offer support to the family.

Brazil’s Bolsonaro to stand trial on coup charges, court rules

Posted on by Kayleigh Carter

Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro will stand trial for allegedly attempting to stage a coup against current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, following a ruling from the country’s top court.
The Supreme Court’s five-member panel voted unanimously in favour of proceeding with the trial.
Bolsonaro, 70, denies attempting to block Lula’s inauguration and claims he is the victim of “political persecution” aimed at preventing him from running for president in 2026.
The trial could take place as early as this year. If found guilty, Bolsonaro could face years in prison.
The panel was tasked with determining whether there was sufficient evidence to put Bolsonaro on trial.
The first to cast his vote on Wednesday was the judge heading the panel, Alexandre de Moraes.
He recommended that Bolsonaro, along with seven other former government officials described by the attorney-general as “co-conspirators”, stand trial over the events leading up to the storming of government buildings by his supporters on 8 January 2023, a week after Lula’s inauguration.

The seven men accused of being co-conspirators are: Alexandre Ramagem, former spy chief; Adm. Almir Garnier Santos, former navy commander; Anderson Torres, former security minister; Gen Augusto Heleno, former minister for institutional security; Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former assistant; Gen. Walter Braga Netto, former defence minister; and Gen. Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira, former defence minister.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain and admirer of US President Donald Trump, governed Brazil from January 2019 to December 2022.
He narrowly lost a presidential election run-off in October 2022 to his left-wing rival, Lula.
Bolsonaro never publicly acknowledged his defeat. Many of his supporters spent weeks camping outside army barracks in an attempt to convince the military to prevent Lula from being sworn in as president on 1 January 2023.
A week after Lula’s inauguration, on 8 January 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in the capital, Brasília, in what federal investigators say was an attempted coup.
Parts of the buildings were ransacked, and police arrested 1,500 people.
Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time and has always denied any links to the rioters.
A federal police investigation into the riots and the events leading up to them was launched.
The investigators said they had found evidence that there was “a criminal organisation” which had “acted in a coordinated manner” to keep then-President Bolsonaro in power.

Their 884-page report, unsealed in November 2024, alleged that “then-President Jair Messias Bolsonaro planned, acted, and was directly and effectively aware of the actions of the criminal organisation aiming to launch a coup d’état and eliminate the democratic rule of law.”
Brazil’s Attorney-General, Paulo Gonet, went even further in his report published last month, accusing Bolsonaro of not just being aware but of leading the criminal organisation that allegedly sought to overthrow Lula.
According to Gonet’s report, the alleged plot included a plan to poison Lula and assassinate Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court justice who headed the panel deciding whether the case should proceed to trial.
Bolsonaro has consistently denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated and aimed at preventing him from running for president again.
While he is already barred from running for public office until 2030 for falsely claiming that Brazil’s voting system was vulnerable to fraud, he had declared his intention to fight the ban in order to run for a second term in 2026.
However, Wednesday’s decision by the Supreme Court has created a significant obstacle to his potential candidacy. (BBC News)