-police force attorney
Guyana Police Force attorney Peter Hugh yesterday told members of the commission inquiring into the July 18 shootings at Linden that the actions of the police on that day are covered by the Criminal Law Offences Act and as a result they are protected from civil or criminal prosecution.
Hugh, reading the act, stated, “if any person is to unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously assemble together, or twelve or more of them continue together, and do not disperse themselves … 15 minutes after the proclamation is made, it shall be the duty of every justice and of all persons required by him to assist, to cause those persons to be apprehended and taken before a Magistrate to be dealt with according to law and if any person of those assembled are killed, hurt or injured in their apprehension of dispersion, every person ordering to be apprehended or dispersed and every person executing those orders shall be free, discharged and indemnified of, from and against all proceedings, whether civil or criminal in respect thereon”.
According to Hugh, protestors on July 18 unlawfully assembled on the Wismar/Mackenzie Bridge when they occupied, blocked and took possession of the roadway. He stated that the
