As many questions remain unanswered about the death of airport worker Chris Jacob, a Coroner’s Inquest will be conducted in hopes of finally determining the true circumstances surrounding how he met his end.
A jury was selected and sworn in for the inquest last Friday by Magistrate Alex Moore, who is due to preside over the proceedings at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court 10.
However, the inquest is not due to start until January 22nd next year.
A Coroner’s Inquest is conducted into unnatural deaths in order to determine who is criminally liable, if anyone, for a death based on evidence presented. If anyone is found to be criminally liable, the case file is to be sent within seven days to the chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice. After that, there will be a determination as to who is to be charged by the police for the murder for a subsequent commencement of a preliminary inquiry.
Although he appreciates the launch of the inquest, Jagat Jacob, the father of the deceased, is frustrated at the lengthy delay until its commencement next year.
The delays in the handling of the case have been very distressing to his family, Jagat said, and he called upon the relevant authorities to address what he said was the feeble justice system in Guyana.
On November 23rd, last year, the body of Jacob, 26, of Hauraruni Village, Soesdyke-Linden Highway, was found in a reservoir at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri.
Jacob, a maintenance engineer of the airport, had been involved in a reported assault and a resulting altercation just hours before his body was found.
Nobody was charged afterward, while there were inconsistencies in relation to surveillance footage captured on the CCTV cameras at the airport.
When a request was made for a copy of the footage from the airport, Jagat said that the airport could not provide the footage as he was told data was only stored for a limited time and the recordings for the night when his son was killed were not available.
