A new magistrate has been assigned to the Marcus Bisram murder Preliminary Inquiry (PI). Her name is Renita Singh and she presides at the Whim Magistrate’s Court.
This development comes weeks after another Magistrate, Alex Moore recused himself from hearing the matter after a letter was sent to the Chancellor of the Judiciary. It is still unclear what the contents of the letter were.
This morning, Acting Chief Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus assigned the matter to Magistrate Singh for a hearing on next Monday, January 20, 2020.
Also this morning, Police Corporal Beckles, who is attached to the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, told reporters not to take pictures of Bisram. In fact, he chased the reporters. He told them, “Get off the steps,” as a reporter was making her way to snap a photo.
He continued, “I tired telling y’all don’t tek pictures by this lock-ups. Look y’all don’t take no pics.” It is unclear why Corporal Beckles had an issue with Bisram’s photo being taken.
It was brought to this publication’s attention that Bisram’s lawyers made certain submissions to the acting Chief Magistrate. The magistrate, however, said that the issues raised can be ventilated before Magistrate Singh.
On Monday, Attorney-at-law Glen Hanoman, one of the lawyers representing Bisram, accused State Prosecutor, Stacy Goodings of “working behind the curtains.”
This accusation comes after Magistrate Alex Moore recused himself from the Preliminary Inquiry (PI) after a letter was written to the Chancellor of the Judiciary. However, Hanoman is looking for answers. He wants to know why Magistrate Moore has taken the decision to no longer hear the case.
In fact, when the matter was called before the magistrate, Hanoman told the court, “The defense was completely shut out as to why the Magistrate recused himself from the matter.”
“It is as though the State [Prosecutor Goodings] is apparatus working behind the curtains and moving matters about.”
The lawyer added, “I, of course, won’t question the Chancellor’s decision but I am not sure that what was sent to the Chancellor is accurate.”
Prosecutor Giddings, after listening to what the lawyer said, handed over a missive to the magistrate stating what was relayed to the Chancellor. At this point, a curious Hanoman requested to see the letter. According to him, “I would like to see it and for the first time be aware of the reason for the recusal.”
Prosecutor Giddings, however, opposed to Hanoman seeing the letter. Her reasoning behind this was that she needs to get permission from her senior. Hanoman, who was apparently upset, responded by saying, “You see, this is the sort of behind the scene movements that’s going on and it looks really bad on the criminal justice system… justice is not being served and the prosecution does not even want to share with the defense the grounds for the recusal.”
Bisram was charged on November 21, 2019 hours after arriving in Guyana.
He was not required to plead to the indictable charge which stated that between 31 October, 2016 and 1 November, 2016, he coerced, procured and commanded five persons to murder Faiyaz Narinedatt.
Bisram is being represented by attorneys-at-law Sanjeev Datadin and Dexter Todd. The murder accused was extradited from the US to Guyana last November after fighting extradition for two years.
Narinedatt was beaten to death by a group of Bisram’s friends when he allegedly slapped the US-based Guyanese who kissed him in the dark at a party Bisram held in November, 2016 at Number 72 Village, Upper Corentyne.
The carpenter’s body was then pushed into the trunk of a car, taken to the Berbice public road, dumped and run over to make it appear as if it was a hit-and-run.
The gruesome killing of the father of two was reportedly ordered by Bisram, who flew to the US soon after.
At the time of Narinedatt’s murder, the police in Berbice treated his death as a road accident since Bisram was a close friend to the senior lawmen in that community, contributing significantly to a number of stations in that Division. He was even recognized by the police for his contributions.
It was only after the dead man’s family met with the then Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum in Georgetown and begged for ranks from the Major Crimes Unit to intervene, then a thorough investigation was done.
In fact, from the inception, there was someone at the party who had witnessed everything. It was this person that led investigators to question five of Bisram’s friends and later resulted in confessions.
The men have all been charged. They are Orlando Dickie, Radesh Motie, Diodath Datt, Harri Paul Parsram, and Niran Yacoob. The accused have all identified Bisram as the mastermind in the murder.
In July 2017, Bisram was arrested in the US where he made countless efforts to fight the extradition, arguing that there is no extradition law between Guyana and the US, but lawyers for the US government contended that a longstanding agreement between that country and Britain which had ruled Guyana up to the 60s, was still valid.
