Four Guyanese who were sentenced in 2009 to long jail terms in Barbados over drug trafficking have been allowed by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to appeal a ruling of the Barbados Court of Appeal denying their application to appeal their convictions because time had run out.
On July 16, the applications of Rohan Shastri Rambarran, Lemme Campbell, Somwattie Persaud and Wayne Gavin Green were considered by the CCJ and the court ruled in their favour against the Barbados Court of Appeal on two points:
- Whether the time for appealing against a conviction begins to run from the date of conviction or from the date of sentence; and
- Whether the Barbados Court of Appeal properly refused to expand the time for appealing the convictions by applicants who had filed notices of appeal against convictions which notices had been dismissed by the court as being out of time.
If the CCJ rules in their favour, the quartet would then be expected to have an appeal of their convictions heard by the Barbados Court of Appeal.
Lemme Michael Campbell, 45, his wife Somwattie Persaud, 40, both of 106 New Garden Street, Queenstown, Georgetown; Christopher Bacchus, 43, and his wife Dianne Bacchus, 37, both of Bay Gardens, Bayland, St Michael; Wayne Gavin Green, 38, of North Ruimveldt, Georgetown and Bridgefield, St Thomas; and Rohan Shastri Rambarran, a 43-year-old businessman of Georgetown, Guyana, were
