Magistrates blamed for jailbreak

GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Chancellor of the Guyana Judiciary, Desiree Bernard, feels that the country’s magistrates should take the blame for the recent jailbreak at the Georgetown Prison from where five armed and dangerous criminals escaped last month, killing a prison officer and critically wounding another in the process.

The chancellor said she was shocked to learn from an interim report from a special committee she had recently appointed to probe the criminal justice system that of 831 prisoners in the Georgetown jail, at least 41 per cent are on remand.

Bernard said that the staggering level of prisoners on remand had resulted from decisions of magistrates and firmly blamed them for contributing to the escape of the five prisoners on February 23 while the nation was celebrating its national ‘Mashramani’ Festival, Guyana’s version of carnival.

Among five, two — Dale Moore and Andrew Douglas — were on remand after being charged with a series of murders and robberies using firearms, reported yesterday’s Sunday Chronicle, while a third, Troy Dick, was also waiting trial on a murder charge.

The chancellor said that the practice of granting endless adjournments to police prosecutors had to stop and declared that the fixing of firm dates for hearings must now be the norm.

Expressing alarm that persons were being held on remand in prison for four years, a problem that was also aggravating overcrowding problems, Chancellor Bernard said that something was clearly wrong with administration of the criminal justice system

“It cannot be justice,” she contended “that a man is on remand for four years without a trial when the presumption of innocence is what we are guided by.”

Caribbean on Global Fund to fight AIDS

THE Caribbean and Latin America are represented on a 17-member international review panel for disbursement of money to combat HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, according to an announcement yesterday from the Geneva-based Global Fund.

Guyana, from the Caribbean, and Brazil from the Latin American region have been named to the panel that will review all grant proposals and make recommendations to the Global Fund Board for funding of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria that contribute to the deaths of some six million people worldwide each year.

The 17-member Technical Review Panel includes experts in disease control and prevention, clinical care, health education and international development. All of them have worked in the developing world where the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria have the greatest impact.

The panel of experts is scheduled to meet in Geneva from March 25-April 5 to make recommendations on the first round of funding proposals.

The final decision of the Global Fund Board on actual grant allocations will be made at a three-day meeting scheduled for April 22-24 in New York.

Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, is an independent public-private partnership working to increase global resources to combat the three diseases, to direct resources where they are needed most, and to ensure that they are used effectively.

TT$10 million ganja destroyed

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — The Trinidad and Tobago police have disclosed that they have destroyed some TT$10 million (TT$6 = US$1) worth of ganja in a two-week eradication of the illegal substance in the Moruga forest.

During this period, according to a report yesterday, some 200,000 fully grown marijuana plants and 30,000 seedlings were destroyed.

The police said that since September last year, 84 arrests have been made for cultivation and possession of ganja and narco-trafficking.