Berbice woman fined $60,000 for wasting court’s time

A Berbice housewife has been fined $60,000 for wasting the courts time.
The fine was imposed on Joanna Ramoutar by Magistrate Michelle Matthias at the Reliance Court.
Back in June of this year, Ramoutar had made a social media post claiming that she had endured six years of abuse at the hands of 25-year-old businessman Karran Sukhan, and was living in fear.

In the post, the mother of three asked for authorities to intervene, alleging that authorities had not been giving her the support she needed.
The abuse was not limited to physical violence, Ramoutar claimed in her social media post, adding that she was subjected to relentless emotional and mental torment and was called by a name which she described as ‘degrading’.

The post was trending on some social media platforms with many users bashing the police for not taking the necessary actions.
The following day police arrested the suspect, Karran Sukhan of Lot 143, Number 2 Village, East Canje, Berbice.
He as subsequently charged with assault causing actual bodily harm, use of threatening language, and threatening behaviour against his reputed wife, Joanna Ramoutar and remanded.
However, when the case was called a second time, Attorney at Law Charlyn Artiga, successfully mitigated for the accused to be granted pre-trial liberty.
Bail was set at $50,000 for the assault charge and $30,000 for each of the other two charges.
However, in her most recent court appearance, Ramoutar said that she does not want to give evidence in the matter and asked the court to give him a warning.
“If he do anything I will get the police to lock him up,” she told the court.
After verifying that she was not being offered any compensation or threatened to inform the court that she was not going to be giving evidence in the matter, Police Prosecutor Sargent Sherry Williams called on the court to impose a penalty on Ramoutar for wasting the court’s time.
Magistrate Matthias imposed a $20,000 fine on each of the three matters for which she refused to give evidence.