Two men were yesterday charged with the murder of Mohamed Abdool Shameer, who was killed in a boat collision and then buried in a shallow grave more than 60 miles away.
Lennox Baharally, 24, a boat builder and the nephew of the deceased, and Rondell Edwards, 19, a boat builder’s apprentice, were yesterday charged with the murder, which police say they committed on April 25.
It is alleged that Baharally and Edwards murdered Shameer in the Upper Pomeroon River. The men, who were arraigned before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan yesterday at a city court, were not required to plead to the indictable charge.
No details about the case against the men were presented by the prosecution.
However, attorney Jerome Khan, who represented the men, referenced several newspaper articles published by the Stabroek News about the case, which he dubbed an “unfortunate matter” and a “boating mishap.”
Khan asserted that what occurred was not a case of murder as there was no malice or intent to kill. What in fact happened, he said, was that the body was “rescued” from the river and the accused were on their way to the Charity Police Station to transport the man when they panicked and decided instead to look for a place to put the body until the next day. The mistake they made, he said, was to remove the body and not make a report immediately.
Khan called the reports in this newspaper, which were published prior to any charges being laid, a “contempt of the court” and sensationalism. He suggested that the intent of the articles was to make it seem as though Baharally had murdered his uncle.
The attorney’s only request to the court was for the disclosure of statements but it was reported by police prosecutor Neville Jeffers that the post mortem report and a few statements are currently outstanding.
The matter has been adjourned to August 15, when it is to be heard at the Charity Magistrate’s Court. Baharally and Edwards have been placed on remand until such time.
Shameer, 58, was found 60 miles from the scene of the boat crash, gutted and buried in a shallow grave. Shameer was said to have been in a paddle boat at the time of the collision and the other, larger boat involved in the accident was reportedly being driven by Baharally, who was in the company of two others, including Edwards.
The two men were later arrested and questioned about the matter and were later released on bail without charges being laid.
