Dialo George had remain-ed in custody despite the High Court order and the bail sum of $500,000 being posted. He was also required to lodge his passport with the court, which he did, but prison authorities denied him permission to sign the recognisance papers and he remained in custody. Defence counsel Nigel Hughes had intervened as well as the Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court Raschid Mohammed.
Hughes wrote the Commissioner of Police and the Deputy Registrar contacted prison authorities. There was no movement in the matter and yesterday Hughes moved again to the High Court, but this time he instituted contempt proceedings against a female police superintendant and a police constable for failing to obey the High Court order. Super-intendant Fowler and Constable Atkins were summoned to the High Court before Justice George yesterday and were asked to explain their actions in the case. Hughes accused them of breaching the court order. He said they had been notified of the order and were shown a copy of it in the presence of officials at the Magistrates’ Court, but failed to act appropriately. He said too that the bail receipt was also made available and supporting evidence that George had lodged his passport with the court.
“…Your honour I was aware of the court order and had expected to see [the accused] coming as an out of court prisoner and not from the lock-ups. I decided to send him back to the prison which sent him to us,” superintendant Fowler said yesterday, when asked to answer the charge before the court. She said that George should have been released, but pointed out that she had no authority to do so. Fowler told the court that she had no intention of disregarding a court order and was merely doing what she felt was the best thing to do.
Constable Atkins said he acted on orders from Fowler and placed the accused back into detention. According to him, he was simply following the advice of a superior office.
Hughes said he intended to call three witnesses in the case to prove that both officers flouted the court order. However, Justice George accepted the explanation provided by the officers, saying that a prima facie case was not made out against them to support contempt proceedings. The judge later ordered that the necessary paperwork be presented in court for George to sign them and be released.
Several minutes after the court was adjourned, George signed the papers and was released into the arms of emotional relatives. George, a former lieutenant in the Guyana Defence Force, was charged with the capital offence back in 2004 when he was accused of killing Private Kwesi Todd at Camp Jaguar. George was the authority on the ground at the base when a disturbance broke out and he allegedly shot and killed Todd.
Justice George granted him bail last Thursday following an application by Hughes which argued that his right to a fair trial within a reasonable time had been contravened. Hughes explained that he had faced two preliminary inquiries; one aborted and another which was in vain because the presiding Magistrate failed to sign the committal papers.
In granting bail, Justice George also granted the accused damages in the sum of $75,000 and she ordered that a fresh preliminary inquiry commence within seven days and be completed within nine months.
