Mc Nicolls stays inquiry

FOUR of the ten persons charged with the murder of United States war veteran Balram “Balo” Maharaj will not yet face trial. Instead, they will have to contend with the request by the US Government for their extradition to Washington DC to face trial for hostage-taking.

Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls yesterday ruled that he would stay the preliminary inquiry into the murder charge against the four. But the murder inquiry will proceed against the other six persons.

The four murder accused wanted for extradition are Sgt Leon Nurse, Private Ricardo De Four, Kevon Demerieux, and Zion Clarke. A fifth person, David Suchit, was also detained pending extradition to the US.

The Chief Magistrate read the two charges to the five. They are charged with conspiracy to commit hostage-taking resulting in death, and hostage-taking resulting in death, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1203 (a).

Title 18 states: “whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure, or to continue to detain another person in order to compel a third person or a governmental organisation to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the person detained, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be punished by imprisonment for any term of years or for life and, if the death of any person results, shall be punished by death or life imprisonment.”

Maharaj, 62, was kidnapped outside the Samaan Tree Bar in Aranjuez on April 5, 2005. His remains were found in two containers in the Santa Cruz forest on January 9 this year.

Lead prosecutor Israel Khan SC told the court that he was not ready to start the murder inquiry because the two witnesses he planned to call were tied up in murder investigations.

Khan said Mc Nicolls will have to decide if he is going to admit two videotapes into evidence.

He asked for a short adjournment to have his witnesses present. Khan also indicated that the 11th accused had not yet been arrested.

Mc Nicolls said he had given the prosecution enough time to locate the outstanding accused. Evans Welch, who represents two of the accused, said he was very dissatisfied with the reasons advanced by Khan. “Are these the only two witnesses in the preliminary inquiry?” he asked.

Welch said it was coincidental that the two witnesses whom Khan planned to call, were unavailable. He said if the prosecution had any intention of starting the inquiry, it would have had other witnesses in court.

Khan said this was a very complex case. He said if the four are extradited, he plans to pursue the case against the other six.

Mc Nicolls promised to start the inquiry on the next occasion. He adjourned it to May 11. The extradition matter was also adjourned to the same day. The other six charged with murder are Doreen Alexander-Durity, Anderson Straker, Cpl Ricardson Stevenson, Wayne and Kenneth Pierre, and Kevon Nixon.