Final accused in Munir double murder trial acquitted

– nearly a decade after rice-farming couple’s deaths, all defendants walk free

The long-running case over the 2016 deaths of rice farmers Mohamed and Jamilla Munir has come to a close, with the final accused, Sanjay George, acquitted of manslaughter.
George, who spent nearly nine years in custody, was unanimously cleared by a jury before Justice Simone Morris at the Demerara High Court. His acquittal means that every person once charged in the notorious case has now been freed.
The Munirs, aged 75 and 70, perished on the night of April 17, 2016, after bandits broke into their heavily grilled Good Hope, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) home and set it ablaze. Their bodies were later recovered from the debris after the fire gutted the two-storey property. Neighbours recalled hearing the couple’s desperate screams as flames quickly engulfed the building. George was initially indicted for murder. In an earlier trial before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow, a jury returned a unanimous not-guilty verdict on the murder charge but could not agree on manslaughter, leaving him to face a retrial. Meanwhile, in 2023, George’s three co-accused, Jason Howard, Shamadeen Mohammed, and Joel Blair, were formally discharged after Justice Barlow instructed jurors to return not-guilty verdicts. The ruling came after it was revealed that no evidence tied them to the crime and that all three had suffered unexplained injuries while in police custody.

Investigators had alleged that a six-man gang, including a driver and lookout, targeted the Munirs, believing the elderly couple kept millions of dollars in cash at home. The intruders ransacked the house searching for valuables, but when the Munirs awoke and the men could not breach the locked bedroom, they set a sofa on fire before tossing a gas cylinder into the flames. Moments later, a loud explosion ripped through the house as the bandits fled into a track leading to a churchyard and cemetery. George, represented by attorney Kiswana Jefford of Hughes, Fields and Stoby, consistently maintained his innocence. “The defence argued that George was beaten by police while in custody and forced to confess to the murders,” Jefford told reporters following the verdict. She further claimed the caution statement produced by investigators was fabricated.
Supporting this claim, Jefford presented documents comparing George’s signatures before and after his arrest, which, she asserted, did not match those on the alleged confession. She also pointed out that the arresting officer was personally familiar with George’s family and had pressured him into leaving his home the day he was taken into custody. A psychiatrist, Dr Meenawattie Rajkumar, was also called to testify about George’s mental health struggles, which, the defence suggested, made him more vulnerable to coercion.
George was first detained in December 2016 and remained behind bars until April 2025, when Jefford successfully applied for his release on bail.
His final acquittal this year on the outstanding manslaughter charge has now closed one of the country’s most harrowing and drawn-out murder cases, bringing an end to nearly a decade of court proceedings that began with the deaths of the elderly rice-farming couple but has ended with the deaths unsolved.