After spending approximately three weeks on remand on a rape charge, Mohammed Wazir Khan was released on $250,000 bail by the High Court.
It is alleged that on March 9, 2019, Khan was involved in sexual activity with a child under the age of 16 and abusing a position of trust. He is an economics teacher attached to a popular private school.
The facts of the matter stated that Khan braced his penis towards the minor’s vagina and squeezed her butt.
On November 26, 2020, Khan was found guilty of the offence by Senior Magistrate Leron Daly in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Following his conviction, he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and was ordered to pay a fine of $1 million.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Khan, through his lawyer Dexter Todd moved to the High Court seeking bail pending the appeal’s hearing.
Todd had argued that his client’s conviction could not be supported given the standard of evidence presented during the trial.
The lawyer contended that the trial Magistrate showed human emotions with the victim’s evidence, which he said created an unfair trial for his client.
He further contended that Magistrate Daly made an error of law when she considered that there was a “strong suspicion” that Khan might have performed the act.
It is against this background that Todd said, “This suspicion could not justify upholding a conviction in all the circumstances of the present case.”
Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry heard the appeal and granted Khan bail in the sum of $250,000.
