Roger Khan `bodyguards’ in custody
AFTER serving just over five months under harsh conditions in separate jails in neighbouring Suriname, without being charged, three ex-policemen were deported here yesterday and were in Police custody in Georgetown last night.

Sean Belfield, Lloyd Roberts and Paul Rodrigues, alleged bodyguards of controversial businessman Roger `Short Man’ Khan, were brought across the border Corentyne River and whisked overland under heavy guard to Police headquarters.

The men, unlike Khan who was also deported without charge from Suriname and is now in jail in the United States, arrived at Moleson Creek, Corentyne, aboard the MV `Canawaima’ on its 10:40 h scheduled trip from the South Drain port in Suriname, and were immediately taken into custody by Guyana Police on an outstanding wanted bulletin.

Sources told the Guyana Chronicle that in addition to possible prosecution for leaving Guyana illegally, they would be grilled on issues in relation to the existing wanted bulletin, and it is unlikely law enforcement officials would release them and request that they report for questioning for fear that they may take flight again.

The three, along with Khan and Gerald Pereira, went into hiding shortly after a wanted bulletin for their questioning was posted here.

Pereira subsequently surrendered to the Police after news of the arrest of Khan, Belfield, Roberts and Rodrigues in Suriname surfaced.

On arrival at Molesen Creek, Rodrigues, Belfield and Roberts were placed in a green camouflage pick-up and escorted under tight security by ranks of the Tactical Services Unit to New Amsterdam and then to the city .

Reports from Suriname said the authorities there, as had happened with Khan, did not find any legal case against the three, opted to have them deported and informed Police authorities here of the developments.

In Suriname, the three went through a pre-trial, similar to that of a Preliminary Inquiry (PI) here, involving the presentation of testimonies being conducted by a Judge of Instruction, their lawyer Surinamese Irwnis Khanai, had told the Guyana Chronicle.

He had said that the Judge of Instruction had a time limit of 120 days to “finish his instructions” -- to determine whether a case had been made out for them to be charged.

Khan, 36, along with Rodrigues, Belfield, Roberts and some Surinamese nationals were nabbed in Suriname in what police in that country said was a huge drug bust that netted 213 kilos of cocaine on June 15 in Paramaribo.

Khan, who was expelled from the country on June 29, after the authorities there said they had no charges against him, while the others remained incarcerated in separate jails, was nabbed by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents in Trinidad as he deplaned from the Suriname Airways flight, placed on a chartered jet and whisked away to the United States.

This was despite the public linking of Khan by Suriname Minister of Justice, Mr. Chandrikapersad Santokhi, to plots to assassinate key government and judicial officials in that country.

Santokhi had also deemed him a threat to national and international security and had told reporters that Khan, for about two years before, was being investigated for cocaine trafficking, firearm possession and being part of a criminal gang.

Less than 24 hours after arriving in the U.S., Khan was arraigned at the Brooklyn Federal Court in New York before Judge Roanne Mann on a charge of “conspiring to import cocaine”.

Mann subsequently transferred the case before Justice Dora Lizzette Irririzary, presiding at the U.S. Eastern District Court on Tillary Street in downtown Brooklyn.

On his second court appearance which lasted a mere 10 minutes, Justice Irririzary had remarked that Khan’s matter is complex.

He is due to make another court appearance on December 6, on the expiration of another 45 day adjournment granted at the request of the prosecution.

 

Thursday, November 23, 2006