Five men who are accused of high seas piracy have been charged with murder. The men are accused of murdering Hemchand Sukdeo, 46, a father of five of No. 55 Village, Corentyne, Berbice during an act of piracy.
The five men who were charged with murder.
The pirates who are all fishermen are Ramchan Latchman, 23, married and a father of two of No. 65 Village, Corentyne; Ganesh Naidoo, 41, of No71 Village; Ramesh Singh, 53, of Liverpool Village, a father of two, Stephen Leon Leacock 19 of 366, No. 77 Village and Leon Sammy, 29, married and father of one of Lot 1 No. 75 Village, all of Corentyne, Berbice.
They are accused of between May 27, and May 28, in the Corentyne River, murdered Sukdeo in the cause of piracy.
While all the men said that they were never charged for any offence before, the police indicated that Sammy was previously before the court.
A post mortem examination conducted on the body of Sukdeo on Friday at Fort Wellington by Dr. Nehaul Singh gave the cause of death as blunt trauma to the head and asphyxia due to drowning.
The men were charged with the capital offence of murder under the hijacking and piracy Act. They appeared on Friday in No. 51 Magistrate’s Court before Magistrate Charlene Artiga and were not required to plead.
The men had allegedly thrown their victim overboard and left him to drown after clobbering him on the head.
Sukdeo was part of a five-member crew aboard the fishing boat “Rosanna 664.” Still missing are Dochand Sukra aka ‘Bucher”, 54, of No. 55 Village, Munesh Churram, aka “Boyo”, 26, of No. 60 Village. Churram is a father of two aged two years and five months. Dhanpaul Rampaul a father of one of No. 67 Village, Corentyne and Dochand Sukra aka ‘Bucher”, 54, of No. 55 Village, Corentyne were the other victims.
Boat captain Seepersaud Persaud, who was also thrown overboard, miraculously managed to survive the ordeal by drifting for hours until he was rescued by another boat while the body of Sukdeo, was pulled up in a fishing seine hours after the attack.
It was the captain who gave investigators a description of the pirate’s boat which led to their capture.
On Tuesday and Wednesday a team of police officers from Guyana led by a Senior Superintendent travelled to neighbouring Suriname and joined with police from the neighbouring Republic to search the waters for the three missing men.
Two of the pirates who are reportedly cooperating with the police were taken out to sea where they pointed out the spot where the men were thrown overboard with anchors tied to their bodies.
The team search of the area where the men were reportedly thrown overboard as was directed by two of the pirates, but came up empty handed despite the use of hi-tech equipment provided by authorities from neighbouring Suriname.
Security was tight with Divisional Commander Ian Amsterdam being among those at the court. In court, relatives of both the accused and deceased and missing men turned up.
Relatives cried as the men were ordered remanded to jail.
This newspaper understands that each of the five suspects has confessed to their role in the attack.
Members of the Guyana Police Force ‘B’ Division led by Commander, Assistant Commissioner Ian Amsterdam along with Pastors of the Cops and Faith in the ‘B’ Division on Tuesday visited the homes of the affected families in the wake of the tragedy.
The case was postponed until July 6, 2016
