Guyanese beauty queen on $25,000 bail

TORONTO: Guyanese beauty queen Mia Rahaman was granted bail in the sum of $25,000 when she appeared before a Brampton, Ontario court on Thursday evening to answer charges relating to the importation of cocaine into Canada.

Earlier in the day, the 23-year-old former Ms Guyana-Universe pleaded not guilty to the charge of “importing a controlled substance,” which is a federal offence and carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Lawyer Daman Kissoon, who has been retained by the Rahaman family to represent the beauty queen, told Newsday that after she was granted bail, she went to her mother’s Toronto area home. Rahaman’s family is prominent in Guyanese social circles. Her father is a national race car driving champion, and the family owns several businesses.
Her father, who lives in Guyana, flew to Toronto on May 21 to be with his daughter. “She had been in custody for two days and wanted to go home and take a shower and be with her family,” Kissoon said. The lawyer said he was meeting with Rahaman later on Friday to discuss the case.

Rahaman, who represented Guyana at the Ms Universe Pageant in Puerto Rico in 2002, was arrested and charged with importing cocaine after disembarking from an Air Transat flight from Georgetown at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on May 21. A Canada Customs officer became suspicious of her behaviour and referred her for a “secondary check” where, police allege, seven kilos of cocaine with a street value of Cdn $1 million were found hidden inside two false compartments in her suitcase. Canada Customs spokesman Mark Butler told Newsday that smaller quantities of the illegal narcotic were also found inside cosmetic items in her possession, including a jar of cream.The charge against her was laid by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Bail was granted to Rahaman with several conditions attached. She has to surrender her passport to the RCMP, report once a month to an RCMP station near the airport, and she cannot leave the province of Ontario. Because she was charged as a Guyanese national and is a landed immigrant in Canada, Rahaman also faces deportation if she is convicted of the crime.Guyana-born Kissoon, one of the most prominent lawyers in Toronto’s Caribbean community, said he is waiting on the disclosure of evidence from the Crown before planning his defence strategy. The $25,000 bail was made up of $5,000 in cash and $20,000 in property put up by Rahaman’s mother. Rahaman is scheduled to return to court on June 13.