An inmate yesterday testified that Deputy Prisons Director Gladwin Samuels had ordered that the door to the Capital A section be closed prior to the fire inside that claimed the lives of 17 prisoners at the Camp Street Prison.
Taking the witness stand before members of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the prisoner deaths was Desmond James, who was one of the inmates who was caught in the blaze. He, however, managed to escape with only burns to his knee.
The evidence of James and inmates who have testified before him continue to cast doubts on efforts by prison officers to rescue the prisoners during the time they were trapped in the fire on the morning of March 3rd. However, attorney for the Guyana Prison Service and the Guyana Police Force, Selwyn Pieters yesterday told reporters that the prison had already submitted video evidence to the CoI to prove efforts were indeed made to save the men from the fire. He said that footage would be played at an appropriate time.
Recounting the day of the fire, James said he had been on his way out of the dorm when an order came from Samuels for the door to the Capital A Division to be closed.
(Samuels was sent on six weeks of leave in the wake of allegations made against him by inmates after the fire.)
Later, under cross-examination by Pieters,
