Fourteen Ituni protesters charged

Police today said that the fourteen persons who were arrested yesterday at Ituni in relation to the blocking of the roadway, were today charged with wilful obstruction of the public way.

In a statement, police said that the 14 appeared before Magistrate Clive Nurse at the Christianburg Magistrate Court where one of the men pleaded ‘guilty’ and was fined $10,000. The others have been placed on $5,000 bail each to return to court on October 02, 2013.

Meanwhile, the statement added that “The Guyana Police Force is strongly refuting allegations made in today’s publication of the Kaieteur News, under the caption `16 persons arrested during early morning raid’ that the police ranks were `dragging people out and beating them because they refuse to go’ and that `ranks were armed with cutlasses’ during the police operation at Ituni yesterday.

“These statements attributed to `a source in the area’ can only be construed as aimed at besmirching the image of the Guyana Police Force as nothing like that occurred.”