Femi Harris-Smith

The government was yesterday ordered to pay over $1.7 billion in damages to Toolsie Persaud Limited (TPL), after losing its challenge to the company’s ownership of land at Turkeyen, including the site of the MovieTowne cinema complex and shopping mall.

The judiciary yesterday morning launched a two-day training exercise aimed at enhancing its capabilities in the adjudication of sexual offence cases and interaction with vulnerable persons in such matters.

Cuban doctor Jose Ocampo Trueba on Friday lost his challenge to the Medical Council of Guyana refusing him full registration to practice here, after the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) dismissed his appeal.

In a more than six-hour long hearing before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), attorneys for the state yesterday argued that amendments to effect the presidential term limit were done in accordance with the Constitution, even as those representing the challenger maintained that a referendum was required and that the two-term restriction is unlawful.

Two men who sexually molested children in separate incidents—one indicted for rape and the other for sexual activity, were yesterday jailed for 30 and nine years respectively by Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall.

Finally honouring a court decision, the New Building Society (NBS) yesterday afternoon wrote a $59,033,000 cheque to former manager Maurice Arjoon for pension owed, after his lawyers attempted to levy on the assets of the bank, which then locked the doors of its Avenue of the Republic headquarters with customers and others inside.

Contesting the challenge to President David Granger’s unilateral appointment of retired judge James Patterson as Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) Chairman, the state’s lawyers yesterday called for the entire application filed by PPP/C Member of Parliament Zulfikar Mustapha to be struck out, while arguing that he had no capacity to bring the action in the first place and therefore should not be heard.

Though they have accepted pay hikes of 8% and 6%, retroactive to January 1, 2017 the unions representing the University of Guyana (UG), are still dissatisfied with this offer by the administration, and believe that the amounts could have been higher.

Justice of Appeal, Rishi Persaud, yesterday ordered the New Building Society (NBS) to pay over to dismissed manager, Maurice Arjoon, the more than $59M in pension owed to him.

The Government of Guyana will have to pay the US$2.2 million awarded to Trinidad road construction company Dipcon in 2015, after losing its bid to appeal the judgment before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Twenty-one-year-old Orin Rodrigues yesterday learned that he would be spending the next 30 years of his life behind bars for the killings of his stepsister and nephew, both of whom he knifed to death.

Errol Williams, was yesterday morning sentenced to 23 years in prison, for what Justice James Bovell-Drakes described as the brutal slaying of 30-year-old firefighter, Patrick Daly.

Recaptured prison escapee Mark Royden Williams, called ‘Smallie,’ and Sherwin Nero, called ‘Catty,’ were yesterday both indicted for the 2007 murder of Kumar Singh, called ‘Mango Man,’ but their attorney, Nigel Hughes, urged that they be discharged due to the “long time” they have had to wait for a trial.

The High Court will rule on Monday on an application for the withdrawal of the capital charge against United States-based Guyanese Marcus Bisram, who is accused of the murder of Number 70 Village carpenter Faiyaz Narinedatt.

Accused Basil Morgan was yesterday cleared of the 2009 murder of Woodette Roberts by Justice James Bovell-Drakes, who upheld a no-case submission that he had previously overruled.

Rawle Samuels, 29, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the brutal slaying of four-year-old Jamal Nedd, whom he had knifed to death at Buck Hill, Linden, in 2013, was yesterday morning handed a life sentence.

Andel Forde, 45, was yesterday sentenced to 20 years behind bars for the unlawful killing of sex worker Noel Luthers, called “Neefi,” whom he admitted to gunning down almost two years ago.

Joshua Baveghems, who admitted to killing his teenage girlfriend, whom he chopped 19 times after beating her with a spade, was yesterday sentenced to 12 years in jail by Justice Navindra Singh.

Justice Franklin Holder yesterday recused himself from presiding over Carvil Duncan’s challenge to his suspension from the Public Service Commission, saying that he made the decision both in the interest of justice and to distance himself from the “unfortunate machinations” resulting from his report on the “contemptuous behaviour” of Attorney General Basil Williams SC at the last hearing.

Josiah Baptiste, who pastors an Apostolic Church in the Timehri area, was yesterday sentenced to 18 years behind bars for the rape of a six-year-old girl.