Witness says he lied about fatal stabbing because of police threats

Christopher Da Silva

One of the prosecution’s main witnesses in the trial of Christopher Da Silva, who is accused of murdering teenager Reyad Khan, yesterday recanted his story of seeing the two in a scuffle moments before the killing.

In his testimony before Justice Navindra Singh and a jury yesterday in the High Court in Georgetown, Jonathan Ramkelawan admitted to lying in the statement he gave to police, “because they [the police] threaten fuh beat me and torture me.”

Responding to questions from Prosecutor Siand Dhurjon, the witness, who said that Da Silva is his friend, was adamant that he never saw the young men fighting, though he was at the scene.