| – local police investigatingFive of the seven individuals who were arrested on March 28th as suspects of a crime ring that was selling false Guyanese passports,Wholesale Jerseys, false St. Maarten residency papers and identification cards have been deported to Guyana.According to a St Maarten News Network article, three of the suspects were deported shortly after they were arrested, but the two main suspects – identified as Bibi Yasmin Hussain and Katip Kholadin – were deported last Saturday (May 7th) and were subsequently arrested in Guyana when they arrived there.However Crime Chief, Assistant Commissioner Seelall Persaud, told Kaieteur News that no one has been arrested by local authorities.Assistant Commissioner Persaud said that the local police have received no communication from their counterparts in St. Maarten,Cheap Jerseys China, however,NFL Jerseys From China, they did make a request, through Interpol, since the documents involved were alleged to be Guyanese passports.According to the SMN Network, Persaud had indicated that one of the setbacks that authorities in Guyana are facing is the lack of cooperation from St. Maarten’s authorities.Persaud said the suspects were arrested some weeks ago in St. Maarten and up to last week he did not receive the documents that were confiscated by the St. Maarten authorities.The SMN Network reported that photocopies of the fake Guyanese passports were submitted to Guyana’s Consulate in Antigua to verify if the travel documents were authentic or not. However, Persaud said they are not able to work with photocopies of falsified documents to prosecute suspects.But the Crime Chief informed Kaieteur News that despite the non-receipt of the original documents, local police are working diligently on the matter.“We do have a vested interest…(since) there may be conspiracies originating in Guyana,” Persaud told this newspaper.He indicated that local investigators will have to determine if the passports involved are genuine and if there were indeed any forgeries,China Jerseys Cheap, especially since there is a possibility that security features could have been breached.St. Maarten’s Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos said that his country and Guyana do not have a working treaty and if Guyana’s Justice System (Crime Chief or Commissioner of Police) wants information from St. Maarten they can always make an official request for the evidence (documents that were confiscated) or information, which will be given to Guyana’s authorities, even though there is no treaty.Mos said St. Maarten just cannot send information to another country if it is not requested and those requesting the information also have to state what they intend to do with the information they are requesting. Documents and evidence that were seized have to pass through a certain chain of command when it is used in the criminal justice system, Mos said.It was noted that while there are over 4,000 Guyanese nationals residing on St. Maarten,Wholesale Jerseys From China, Guyana still does not have an appointed envoy or spokesperson on the island to represent its citizens.According to the St Maarten News Network, two of the seven suspects that were arrested were released,China Jerseys Cheap, since they were in possession of valid working papers, and the two suspects that left the island on Saturday had to request travel documents from authorities in Guyana so that they could have travelled back home.The SMN Network reported that Hussain told authorities on St. Maarten that she had lost her passport while Kholadin could not use the false document he was in possession of when arrested.Hussain and her two sons were arrested on March 28th after police arrested and interrogated her third son who was reportedly caught with a false St. Maarten’s identification card and residency papers. The suspect Katip Kholadin was also allegedly in possession of a valid Guyanese passport that was issued with a deceased man’s birth certificate.It was reported that while the passport bore the photograph of Katip Kholadin, the information such as name and date of birth belonged to a deceased person, whose name was Anthony Jamesie. Police on St. Maarten also released the $34,700 they found during the house search on St. Maarten.According to information provided to the SMN Network, one of Hussain’s sons who was working as a bartender claimed the money belonged to him since he did not have a bank account.The SMN Network reported that police in St. Maarten bungled the investigation, thus giving lawyers who represented the suspects the upper-hand while the suspects were in pre-trial detention.The police there indicated that they did not have enough evidence to prosecute the suspects, therefore, they felt it was best to deport the individuals to Guyana “where the crime of falsifying documents was committed”.Guyana’s Crime Chief had told SMN Network that an investigation will be launched to determine how Katip Kholadin managed to get someone to authenticate his photograph which allowed him to apply for a Guyana Passport with someone else’s birth certificate.St Maarten recently announced a visa requirement for all Guyanese seeking to enter the country. |
