Magistrate sick; accused, State Prosecutor a no-show

Marcus Bisram murder trial

– case postponed to December 11

The absence of Senior Magistrate Alex Moor at the Springslands Court on Monday has put a hold on the Marcus Bisram murder trial.

However, there was still heated debate when the matter was instead called at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court, but Magistrate Peter Hugh contended that that court had no jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Defence Attorney Sanjeev Datadin had been pushing to get the court to rule on the issue of jurisdiction.
When the matter was initially called on Monday morning, Police Prosecutor Rudolph Poliah told the court that the State wanted to have the matter adjourned until January 7, 2020.
However, Datadin objected and asked the court for the prosecution to provide credible reasons as to why the one-month delay was being suggested.

The matter was adjourned and recalled after lunch but the prosecution did not have any acceptable reasons for a delay and as such, the court ruled that the matter will be called on December 11, 2019, at Springlands.
Meanwhile, Special Prosecutor Stacy Godings did not attend court on Monday and Datadin expressed concern that the prosecution did not provide copies of a statement from its witness as ordered by the court on December 2, when the matter was last called.
Speaking with the media after Monday’s hearing, Datadin related that those statements should have been handed over on Monday even though the Magistrate was absent.
“If the Magistrate is not here and is not on duty, that doesn’t remove the obligation from the State to serve statements and they should have served those statements. No one from the State even bothered to come,” he lamented.
He further stated, “I don’t know what game the prosecution is playing. They brought Mr Bisram to Guyana and has been alleging for the past two years that they have all the evidence and statements. What is the reason for the delay?”.
On Monday, Bisram also did not show up at court. It was expected that the Preliminary Inquiry would have commenced on Monday with the court revisiting the scene of the crime.
Bisram is accused of ordering the death of Fayaz Narinedatt, a carpenter of Number 70 Village Corentyne, on November 30, 2016.
His death was initially reported as a suspected hit-and-run accident. It was later reported that Bisram made sexual advances to Narinedatt, who objected to the advances.
Bisram was initially charged here in absentia, while five others: Orlando Dickie, Radesh Motie, Diodath Datt, Harri Paul Parsram, and Niran Yacoob have also been committed to stand trial for the murder of Faiyaz Narinedatt.