Police yet to identify culprits for death of inmate

…Investigations currently ongoing into the matter – Prisons Service Director

More than one week after Shaheed Ali was beaten to death in the holding area of the Lusignan Prison, the perpetrators responsible for the incident have not been identified.
Director of Prisons, Gladwyn Samuels, told Guyana Times that the matter is not closed and that the police are presently still conducting their investigations in this regard.
Ali, who hailed from Albouystown, Georgetown, had been severely beaten by several prisoners following a dispute at the Lusignan penitentiary on April 2 and had to be rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) for emergency medical treatment.
The now dead 30-year-old prisoner had undergone surgery for several injuries including a fractured skull on April 5, but succumbed to his injuries, at the GPHC.
Reports are that at about 22:58h on the night of the beating, Ali was in Bay One at the Lusignan Prison when several other prisoners began to beat him following a dispute. The injured inmate was taken to the GPHC where he was admitted as a patient. However, on April 5 at about 20:50h, he succumbed and a report was subsequently made to the police.
The then acting Guyana Prison Service (GPS) Director, Kevin Pilgrim, when contacted by this publication had said that the incident is being investigated by the police.
He explained that the protocol of any assault that occurs inside the prison which results in death stipulates that the police spearhead the investigation.
“The police have been called in to the matter, in fact, when the assault took place they were notified, and now that this is a murder case, it is the GPF who is leading the investigations. We at the GPS are awaiting a full report as it relates to the actors [perpetrators] who are involved in this death. The police visited the area, the holding bay at Lusignan on Friday night, and investigations are continuing,” Pilgrim told this newspaper.
According to Pilgrim, the holding bay where the assault against Ali occurred is very large, with a large number of inmates. He said that the prison service has been cooperating with the investigation and has made provisions for all staff who worked during the night of the beating to be available to the police for questioning.
“Even if there are 500 inmates there at Lusignan, the GPS will make each of them available to the police for the investigation process. Also, all our prison officers we will make available to the police so that this matter can be fully investigated so that we will know who needs to be charged or held accountable,” Pilgrim added.