Family demands justice as robbery accused gets bail

A mother is calling for justice after saying that even though bandits broke into her home and dragged her out of bed by her hair after chopping her son several times, one of the alleged perpetrators has only been charged with armed robbery and no mention was made of the wounding.

It was on August 4, 2019 that gunmen entered the house through a door that was left open and chopped 30-year-old Rene Anthony Juman of Lot 162 Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam, leaving him with a fractured skull and a broken shoulder after he was chopped several times. Four of his front teeth were also knocked out by the bandits.
His father, 50-year-old Mohamed Ishmael, was choked during the home invasion. Moreover, Bebi Ali was hit with a crowbar and dragged from her bed after the bedroom door was forcefully opened.

On Wednesday, one of the suspects, Victor Sealey, appeared before Magistrate Renata Singh at the Reliance Magistrate Court and was not required to plea to the charge of robbery under arms.
It is alleged that on August 4, at Angoy’s Avenue, he robbed Juman of two silver chains.
After the charge was read, Magistrate Singh, seeing the reaction from Ali— who was on her feet as one of the Virtual Complainants— asked her if she had something to say.
The woman then revealed that the charge as stated did not represent the statement she and her son had given to the Police.
After the court hearing, she told Guyana Times that she needs justice.
“I told the Magistrate, ‘No, that is not my story. That he go in our house, chop up my son, break my door’. I don’t know why the Police did not send the statements…”
In Court on Wednesday, the woman explained that her son received life threatening injuries. The break and enter charge, she said, came as a surprise given the magnitude of the injuries.
Back in August, the family had reported that three cellular phones were on a table when the bandits entered and they did not interfere with them; they only demanded money and jewellery.
According to Ali, she had given two statements to the Police and those statements were not in the Police file that the prosecutors had on Wednesday.
“My first statement had everything that take place; how they break the door and what happen to my son, beat my husband, knock me and pull me out of the bed from the room by my hair and everything”.
The second statement, she explained, included the names of the suspects.
According to Ali, she did not provide that information to the Police initially because of fear and the fact that when she was with her son, who was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital for some time, Ishmael was left alone in the house.
“It is after I got him out of the house that I gave the Police the second statement,” she said.
Following Ali’s report to the court, the Magistrate said she is of the opinion that something was not right and advised that she contacts the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Meanwhile, a Police source confirmed that following the arrest of Sealey, a file was prepared and sent to the DPP for advice and he was subsequently charged.
Sealey was placed on $100,000 bail and will have to return to Court on November 6.
The matter has been transferred the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court.