To be continued

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By Dale Andrews(Continued from last week) Seventeen years ago, Hafiz Hussein was sentenced to death for the murder of Aubrey Ramsammy called Arnold at Black Bush Polder, Berbice.Despite his conviction by a jury of his peers, to this day many still believe that he is a victim of circumstance.Last week we looked at the initial stages of the investigation and came to the point that there might have been some controversy surrounding evidence presented at the Preliminary Inquiry.Death row inmate Hafiz Hussein Prominent Berbice attorney at law, Mursaline Bacchus, represented Hussein. One villager, who only wanted to be identified as Boy Blue, told this newspaper that the Preliminary Inquiry was held at the Whim Magistrate’s Court since the authorities were fearful that villagers would have protested against the institution of charges against the accused, if the matter was held at the Mibicuri Magistrate’s Court.During the initial stages of the PI, conducted by Magistrate Chandra Sohan, the attorney had requested that the prosecution present the station diary and the occurrence book in which it was recorded that the witnesses identified the perpetrators as two Negro men and one East Indian.The Station Sergeant did agree with counsel’s submissions on the initial diary entry made by the witnesses but he could not produce the diary or the occurrence book.Based on the initial report taken by the police almost 20 persons were detained and questioned by the police.“If these people could recognise the killers, why would the police arrest so many people before settling on five?” one villager asked.At the PI one of the main witnesses testified that she recognised Hussein’s voice then on another occasion she said that she recognised his structure from the back.However, questions were raised as to why wasn’t this told to investigators immediately after the incident instead of waiting for almost nine days.This was the most contentious aspect of the Preliminary Inquiry as there appeared to be some concoction with regards to the identification of the suspect.The attorney mainly fought the case on the grounds of mistaken identity and even made no case submissions based on what he described as conflicting evidence.However, the Magistrate ruled that a prima facie case had been made out against Hussein and the three other co-accused who remained to stand trial in the High Court.Incidentally, the number one accused, Karamchand Persaud, escaped from custody and has not been seen since.He is reported to be hiding out in neighbouring Suriname.The accused claimed that while in prison awaiting trial in the High Court, they overheard another inmate saying that the notorious Berbice bandit, Hilton Rodrigues, called Chamar, had masterminded the robbery/murder committed on Ramsammy.Rodrigues was subsequently cornered by police and shot dead in 2000. Police recovered a shotgun similar to the one used in Ramsammy’s killing from the dead bandit.A neighbour of the victim, who gave her name as ‘Dai’, and who testified at the trial, told this newspaper that on the night of the incident when the police visited the scene, one of the victim’s daughters blurted out, “Dis ah de gun wha shoot awe”, referring to a shotgun carried  by one of the ranks.She said that she was at home when she heard the first gunshot and called out to her two sons.“I hear Uncle Arnold hollering and next thing I hear dem say ‘police’. I hear de daughter saying, ‘alyuh blackman’,” Dai reported.The entire case was fought on the identification of the perpetrators and according to the attorney there were clear contradictions.“De people wha get hold nah like dat. Me nah know wha really happen,” Dai told this newspaper.Krishendat, another neighbour who spoke to Kaieteur News, recalled that shortly after the incident, his brother accompanied the victim’s son to the Mibicuri Police Station, where the son reported that “two negroes and one Indian were the perpetrators.”“When we went to the house and we asked the (victim’s) daughter how they know was black and Indian. They say that from the voice and the hair on they hand,” Krishendat told this newspaper.Hussein’s sister, Silvie, in an interview with this newspaper stated that when her brother was arrested, the entire family broke down. “We could not function,” she said.“He never had a problem. Even we never had a problem with him. The other man who get sentence to death with him was not even his friend,” Silvie, a prominent farmer and businesswoman in the Black Bush community stated.She said that she visits her brother in prison occasionally and would often cry because she is convinced that he is innocent but nothing can be done.She believes that since there were a lot of killings and robberies in Berbice around the time the incident occurred, there was a lot of pressure on the police, and someone had to be made the scapegoat.She believes that that was her brother.“Every holiday, I pray, I hope that he will one day be released,” Silvie said.She said that during her brother’s trial his attorney had advised him to plead guilty to manslaughter but he refused since he was convinced that since he had not committed the crime, he would have been acquitted.How wrong he was.(To be continued )