| By Gary EleazarNow that self confessed drug trafficker Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan has been sentenced, many in the political, social and other spheres now believe that the Guyana Police Force, more so its Commissioner, Henry Greene, is now at crossroads to demonstrate a commitment and take a proactive stance towards the promised investigation.They believe that it is at a cross roads to take a proactive stance and go after the evidence that the United States promised to make available at the conclusion of the Court hearings which resulted in a 40-year sentence for Shaheed Khan.He will only spend 15 years because the sentences on the three counts will run concurrently. He was sentenced to 10 years on the 16-year-old gun charge; 15 years on the witness tampering charge; and another 15 years for his drug-related charges.Following appeals, locally, by many but more vociferously in the opposition political strata, the government through the Guyana Police Force had requested the evidence that the US Government had uncovered and had planned to use against Khan.However, the US Government responded by saying that the requisition will be provided at the conclusion of Khan’s court hearings.That time is now. “Will the Guyana Police Force act or wait until the US decides to hand that evidence over?�Recently, Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform, (PNCR) Robert Corbin, lashed out at statements by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, wherein he stated that the police preferred to wait on the relevant documentation to proceed with an investigation into the alleged link between Khan and Government officials.According to Corbin, while the information available on the US federal website, namely PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) was a representation of the official documents and could not be tendered in a court, the police or any interested party, on the basis of what is uploaded, could proceed to the relevant authority to obtain the certified copies that could be used as evidence.That, he said, represents an obvious unwillingness by the Guyana Police Force, adding that they did not have to wait for the conclusion of anything, given the fact that the documents are already in the public domain.He urged that the public not be distracted by “Luncheonian shenanigans� emphasising that PACER reflects official US court documents.He drew reference also to the sworn affidavit by George Bacchus that was uploaded on his party’s website, pointing out that it was a reflection of an official document which was handed over to the police.According to Corbin, they (the administration), “fear to confront the truth, it exposes the administration.�Alliance For Change Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan, had also denounced Dr Luncheon’s pronouncement saying that it illustrated the total contempt for the Guyanese people and dismissed his assertion as ridiculous.He added that the information being posted on the PACER website provides a wealth of circumstantial evidence that could be built upon by local police.Ramjattan also drew reference to when the CIA declassified documents as it relates to Arthur Schlesinger that could have been used to the advantage of the People’s Progressive Party.“They ran and got it and used it as evidence, telling the Guyanese what the US did in Guyana and to Cheddi (Jagan) in the 1960s.�According to Ramjattan, the current documents on the internet are even more credible, given that they were all presented before a jury, witnesses testified and were cross examined, and the jury believed what was presented before it.“When it suits them they go all out and get it…but now that these documents don’t suit them they don’t want to touch it, not even with a 40-foot pole.�Dr Luncheon had concluded that much of the information that will be used for the probe being called for, “we will be using our own resources but a very important contribution will have to come from trials referred to.�“Police have to investigate, but to investigate they need the support internally and externally.�He reminded media operatives that the US has been written to some time ago,wholeslae cheap nfl jerseys china, requesting information, but the local authorities were told that this will be made at the conclusion of the trials adding that, “on the basis of what comes out in ruling, maybe other agencies and individuals may be solicited.�He was then informed that all of the court documents that he referred to were already available, given that the PACER service provides on-line access to U.S. Appellate, District, and Bankruptcy court records and documents nationwide.The PACER Service Center is the Federal Judiciary’s centralised registration, billing, and technical support centre for PACER.According to Dr Luncheon, “I suppose that you could (use the service) and it would be useful for Stabroek News and Kaieteur News but I don’t know if it would be as useful to the police, as they prefer going to the authorities.�During the trial of Khan’s former attorney, Robert Simels, who was charged along with the Guyanese for witness tampering, a self confessed ‘Phantom Squad’ member, Selwyn Vaughn, was a key witness against him.This resulted in Simels being convicted. He is currently awaiting sentencing.When Vaughn took to the witness stand in the US court he made several explosive allegations of murder, intrigue, drugs and complicity.He also as implicated several senior officials including Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, who he said facilitated the purchase of the now infamous ‘spy computer.’Vaughn went into the witness stand and stated that Roger Khan ordered the killings of political activist Ronald Waddell, and boxing coach Donald Allison.Vaughn said that he knows what happened because he was there in a Burgundy diesel Toyota AT 192 motorcar when four other named members of the squad turned up and shot Waddell.Vaughn claimed that he was the lookout man who was tracking Waddell and that he called Roger Khan on his cell phone that night and reported that Waddell had left his residence and his car was idling on the roadway.Within minutes, four members of the phantom squad, all former members of the Guyana Police Force, turned up and shot Waddell.The witness said that after the shooting that night, Khan and his group, including Vaughn, gathered at the Blue Iguana nightspot and from that location Khan called the Minister of Health in Guyana, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.According to Vaughn, Khan instructed Ramsammy to order the doctors at the Georgetown Public Hospital to let Waddell die.Waddell, the former talk show host, according to the witness, was criticising Shaheed Roger Khan and was connected to the infamous Buxton Gang of Escapees.He said that he met Dr Ramsammy both at Roger Khan’s Carpet Cleaning office in Bel Air Village and that he went to Dr Ramsammy’s office on behalf of Khan who introduced him to Dr Ramsammy.The jury in the Simels trial also heard a tape recording in which the star witness contradicted an assertion that Simels made, that former Army major David Clarke’s wife, Captain Fraser nursed Guyana’s one time most wanted man Rondell Rawlins aka Fine Man of Buxton back to health.The witness, who knew that Simels was in constant contact with Roger Khan, stated that Roger Khan himself would be able to confirm that he, Vaughn, kept Rawlins in a safe house in Agricola during the period when the Guyanese police were on the hunt for him and when Fine Man was injured.“Rawlins was in a house provided by me.� Vaughn told the court in New York. “He was not in Buxton and he (Vaughn) was the only one who had access to him in that house. “Something that Roger himself would be able to confirm,� the witness stated in sworn testimony.He also accused Dr Ramsammy of facilitating the purchase of the infamous computer as well as the training to be conducted for Khan. |
