Victim to be charged for disorderly behaviour

Alleged Police brutality

The Essequibo Coast man whose leg was broken after reportedly being beaten by Police in Region Two will, among other things, be charged for disorderly behaviour.
This is so according to Police Public Relations Officer Jairam Ramlakhan, who explained that the 29-year-old Junior Courtman of Queenstown, Essequibo Coast is, in the coming days, likely to be slapped with at least five charges for causing harm to Police officers and for general misbehaviour.
“Charges were recommended by the legal advisor…he can be charged for what they call riotous behaviour in a public place, causing actual bodily harm, and two charges for assaulting two officers,” Ramlakhan pointed out.
Questioned about the allegations Courtman had made against the Police — that they had beaten him, Ramlakhan noted that there was not enough evidence to support Courtman’s statement.
“The report stated that there is no evidence to show, support, or substantiate he (Courtman) was assaulted by any of the ranks. There is no evidence to substantiate that, based on the doctor’s report and the medical and some statements (taken). The (ranks) said that he jump out of the vehicle,” Ramlakhan said.
The father of three recently told this newspaper that he was out at a wash bay with three of his friends on the evening of June 20, when, at about 23:30hr, a vanload of Police officers pulled up and searched them. According to him, nothing was found in their possession, so the Police ordered them to go home.
Courtman said he and his friends left the wash bay, and when he got about 50 feet

away from the location, he realised he had left his phone, and returned for it.
“So I went back to get my phone, but they were still there where we were, and when I went back, one of them jump out de vehicle and come and hold me and push me off my bike…so I told them I goin for my phone, and he start pushin me and chuckin me and cuff me in my eye,” the injured man related.
He admitted that after the rank had done this to him, he and the rank engaged in a scuffle, and two other ranks left the vehicle with a baton and a gun, and started to attack him.
“When they done beating me, they throw me in de vehicle, because I couldn’t ah get up to walk; and then they took me to the (Anna Regina Police) station. And when I reach there, they told me to get up and come out de vehicle, but I couldn’t ah get up, so they beat me again and drag me into the station and put me on a bench to sit down,” Courtman had said.
Courtman said the Police subsequently took away all of his belongings, and were about to place him in the lockups. He claimed the Police prepared a statement, which he did not sign, given that the occurrences the Police had documented were not accurate.
He said he was taken to the Suddie Hospital upon request by a female officer, and was subsequently transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), where he was being treated for his broken leg.
The man who plies his trade as a carpenter and mason in his village said he was expecting to undergo a surgery to rectify his foot, which was allegedly broken by the ranks.
Commander of G Division, Essequibo, Khali Pareshram, said he was aware of one such case in the zone, which to his knowledge is being investigated by Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). He was, however, unable to say whether it was the same case.