Tough penalties for piracy
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo

– PM Nagamootoo warns fishermen against hijacking

THE current law provides stiff penalties for acts of piracy or hijacking of fishing boats off Guyana’s sea-coasts and in its rivers, including life in jail and execution by hanging.
This was pointed out by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo in his weekly newspaper column, “My Turn” under the caption, “Piracy: Participation and Punishment,” published in Guyana Sunday Chronicle.

The prime minister, a former journalist and attorney-at-law, reminded all fisher- folk and their hired hands that offences at sea carry serious penalties.

These include life imprisonment for hijacking, that is, taking away or attempting to take away another boat; life imprisonment for piracy, that is, illegally detaining a boat in a river or on the sea; or participating in the operation of a pirate vessel; 10 years imprisonment for covering up a piracy attack, where death resulted; and death by hanging, for murder on board a vessel during an armed robbery, hijacking or piracy.
He cautioned that fishing crew who sign on to work on a “pirate boat”, whether in Guyana, Suriname or elsewhere, cannot claim that they do not know the law; or plead that “is dem, not me!”

Nagamootoo was at the time commenting on the multiple counts of murder with which three Guyanese fishermen have been charged, arising from the piracy-related massacre of mostly Guyanese fishermen off the coast of Suriname. He noted that the alleged mastermind and his co-accused, as well as a third murder accused, are all from Upper Corentyne.

The alleged mastermind, 43-year-old Primnauth Persaud, called “Sinbad” of Cromarty Village, and his co-accused Nakool Manohar, popularly known as “Fyah” of Number 43 Village, were last week charged with two counts of murder for allegedly killing fishermen Mahesh Sarjoo and Tillacknauth Mohabir during a piracy attack in Suriname last month.
The men appeared before Magistrate Rabindranauth Singh at the Springlands Magistrates’ Court, where they were not required to plead to the indictable charge. The charge stated that between April 26 and May 3 at sea, they allegedly murdered Tillacknauth and Sarjoo during the course or furtherance of a robbery.

A week before the duo appeared in court, 19-year-old Alexander DenHart, called “Shame Face,” appeared before acting Chief Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus and was not required to answer to the charge. Particulars of the charge allege that between April 26 and May 3, 2018 while in Guyana’s territorial waters, DenHart murdered Tillacknauth Mahabir, called “Caiman”, who was on a vessel that was robbed.

Nagamootoo said upon conviction, they face the penalty of death by hanging.
Meanwhile, 13 other persons remain in police custody in Suriname, and could also face piracy and murder charges in that jurisdiction.

The question that has been raised, he wrote, is whether the three murder accused should be charged in Guyana for offences committed in Suriname. The answer is found in provisions of the Hijacking and Piracy Act (2008), for offences, though committed in another country, to be treated as if they were done within Guyana or its territorial waters. In other words, as advised, Guyana has jurisdiction.

During April-May this year, two separate attacks took place against five Suriname-registered fishing vessels, both with some 25 crew members,mostly Guyanese. Nine fishermen survived the grisly, gruesome blood-bath; 12 are still missing, and are presumably dead.

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