Deportee charged with murder of Corentyne fisherman

A Canadian deportee of Number 67 Village, Corentyne, Berbice was on Thursday charged with the 2016 murder of a fisherman, whose decomposing body was discovered in a sandpit a short distance away from his home.

Days after his arrest, Monilall Sarjou, 47, appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts to answer to the charge.

Sarjou was not required to plead to the indictable charge which stated that between August 22 and August 24, 2016, at Number 68 Village in Corentyne, he unlawfully murdered fisherman Levan Chanderpaul.

The Police Prosecutor requested two weeks to prepare the case, and as such, the Attorney-at-Law for the accused, Leslie Sobers told the court that the prosecution had no evidence and was going to utilise the two weeks to primarily salvage and attempt to pull things together.

Sarjou was remanded and the case was transferred to the Springlands Magistrate’s Court in Berbice where he is expected to reappear on April 19, 2017.

On August 24, 2016, the battered and bound body of an alleged pirate gang member was found in the backlands of Number 68 Village. Reports indicated that it was the body of 28-year-old Levan Chanderpaul. The discovery was made about 19:30h by a teenager who was returning to the village from the back dam.

 Chanderpaul’s body at the time bore several marks of violence.

The now dead man was in December 2011 charged and placed before the court after he was suspected to have been a part of a notorious pirate gang.

He was slated to appear at the Springlands Magistrate’s Court on the day before his body was found, on a simple larceny and threatening language charge, but was absent.

Post-mortem results on Chanderpaul’s body revealed that the victim suffered a fractured skull and succumbed from shock and haemorrhage.

Sources revealed that the accused, Sarjou, was deported from Canada in 2009 for allegedly slashing a woman’s throat.