2016 piracy attack: 5 men handed death sentence for “merciless slaughter” of 4 fishermen

Justice Sandil Kissoon, presiding in the Berbice High Court on Thursday, has sentenced to death all five perpetrators of a piracy attack that occurred in the Atlantic Ocean off the Corentyne Coast on May 27/28 in 2016, and left four fishermen dead.
Describing the collective actions of the convicts as a “merciless slaughter”, he has sentenced these pirates to suffer death in a manner prescribed by the law.
The convicted men: Leon Sammy, Ganesh Naidoo, Ramesh Singh, Ramchand Latchman, and Stephon Leacock, admitted to killing 43-year-old Dhanpaul Ramphal, also known as “Sunil”; 26-year-old Munish Churman, also known as “Boyo”; 61-year-old Dochan Sukra, also known as “Butcher”; and 45-year-old Hemchand Sookdeo, nicknamed “Dread,” a father of four, when they entered a guilty plea to four counts of murder last month. Latchman was the mastermind behind the attack.

In his sentencing remarks, Justice Kissoon described the deaths of the fishermen as a “horrific crime, and an atrocity of utter and complete savagery”. He said that on May 27 and 28, 2016, the five defendants had gone on a murderous rampage of piracy, hijacking and robbery; and he made it clear that the sentence to be imposed on the criminals cannot be lessened by their youthful age, past clean criminal records, or their prospects of rehabilitation, despite their attorneys pleading with him to temper justice with mercy.
Also alluding to the serious nature of the offence and the prevalence of piracy, especially in the East Berbice-Corentyne region, Justice Kissoon ruled that each of the five murderers must be executed in accordance with the penalty outlined in Section 7 of the Hijacking and Piracy Act.
This Act states: “Any person who murders a person on board a vessel that is under attack while committing an offence of armed robbery, piracy or hijacking is liable on conviction on indictment to suffer death.”
Addressing the group of confessed murderers seated in the prisoner’s dock, Justice Kissoon declared: “Each of you is hereby sentenced to suffer death in a manner prescribed by law on each count in the indictment.”
Seepersaud Persaud was the captain of Rosana 664, the fishing vessel that came under attack off the Corentyne Coast by men armed with cutlasses and pieces of wood on May 27, 2016. Persaud had been hurled overboard in the attack, but he made it through the ordeal alive after he was rescued by a passing fishing vessel.
Hours after the attack, Sookdeo’s body was discovered entangled in seines with a chop wound to the back of his skull. However, the three other crew members: Churman, Sukra and Ramphal, are still unaccounted for, and are thought to have perished, having been tied to an anchor and tossed overboard.
The pirates had taken their victims’ fuel, a horsepower engine and other equipment, and their daily catch.
The day after that attack, May 28, 2016, Police visited the #65 Village foreshore on the Corentyne in response to information they had received, and they observed a boat that matched the description of the vessel used during the attack. On board, the Police found the five confessed killers.
In October, Ramchand Latchman and another man were each sentenced to life imprisonment, with the possibility of being paroled after 30 years, for the murder of their fellow prison inmate. Justice Kissoon imposed the punishment on these two following guilty verdicts from the jury. (G1)