Wildlife trader, Feezal Shaw, was yesterday found guilty of trafficking in persons following the conclusion of a trial before Magistrate Faith Mc Gusty.
The charges brought against Shaw stated that between February 14th and June 14th, 2018, at Soesdyke, he engaged in trafficking in persons, that is, he recruited, harboured or transported Eduardo Vivas and Jose Rodriguez to work but did not pay them.
Shaw appeared before Magistrate Mc Gusty yesterday in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court and was remanded to prison after she requested that a probation report be done. The matter was adjourned to February 24th.
In 2018, similar charges were brought against Shaw, but were later dismissed due to the Prosecutor failing to make an application for the Administration of Justice Act (AJA) to be applied which would have seen the defendant entering a plea to the charge and subsequently facing a trial. Instead, a preliminary inquiry was done which eventually led to Shaw being freed. The charges were later reinstituted before Magistrate Annette Singh in 2019, and Shaw pleaded not guilty. He was granted bail in the sum of $100,000.
The court had heard that on February 14th, 2018, the victims, both Venezuelan nationals, were invited to Guyana to work for Shaw who owned South American Unlimited, located in Soesdyke, and were allegedly told that they would be building cages for the defendant’s exotic animals. They were reportedly paid for their first three days and then were not paid anything until June 1st, 2018, when they were given $100,000. It was said that they later asked for the monies owed to them which were given to them. It was then alleged that Shaw took the victims’ passports and told them that he would arrange for them to have more time in the country but he never returned the documents to the two men.
