Ex-army officers Oliver Hinckson and Dorian Massay will appear in court today and attorneys for Hinckson are to file a motion on his behalf.
This newspaper understands that the man’s lawyers intend to prove that the statements he made during the city council press conference on February 1 are not in contravention of the law but rather were his analysis of the situation in the country, in the wake of the first set of killings at Lusignan.
Gregory Gaskin, one of Hinckson’s attorneys had told Stabroek News that he believed his client’s right of freedom of expression, thought and conscience were being trampled on. A statement from a group calling itself the Free Expression Association in which his attorneys are prominent, said Articles 145 and 146 of the country’s Constitution provided that no one shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom on thought, expression or association.
The attorneys said too that nothing Hinckson said was seditious in nature but were unable to say what he was likely to be charged with.
Police had also invited Mayor Hamilton Green to Police Headquarters at Eve Leary to confirm statements made by Hinckson, but Green had rejected the offer following legal advice. However, the next day he overturned his decision and went to speak with the police but refused to sign a statement after he said a police officer made sinister insertion in the statement.
Yesterday Green told Stabroek News that he had not heard from the police again. Stabroek News understands that the police had questioned M&CC Public Relations Officer Royston King on the press conference, the same day they had invited Green to headquarters for questioning.
Hinckson and Massay were said to have turned up at City Hall while Green was having his press conference and Green had allowed Hinckson to address the media. It was during this presentation that he had suggested, among other things, that the recent killings were more than a criminal problem and that all the evidence pointed in that direction.
Hinckson had said that he and other ex-servicemen were prepared, “fully knowing that we do not have a tacit hand or an actual hand in any kind of mischief, but we are prepared to risk our lives, venture into Buxton and assist in some kind of negotiation between the government and the disenchanted.”
Massay, a GDF cadet, who had been sent on a course to the UK, returned to Guyana a few years ago after being detained on several charges while on the course. He was later discharged from the army.
