Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes said Police Sergeant Dion Bascom has information to prove his case but would only release it unless his safety is guaranteed.
Hughes’ statements came two days after Commissioner of Police (ag) Clifton Hicken and Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum pushed back against his client’s allegations, deeming them untrue and malicious.
Sergeant Bascom had accused senior members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) of taking bribes from a city businessman to cover up the murder probe of Ricardo Fagundes, also known as “Paper Shots.”
Fagundes was riddled with bullets in March 2021, just after he exited the Palm Court on Main Street, Georgetown.
The Crime Chief told the media on Wednesday that Bascom was falsely concocting information that the Force has in its possession a device that can track calls using a laptop.
But Bascom on Friday explained he was present when this device was used during the investigation of Fagundes.
“After Mr. Caesar left the compound in the morning […] We went with Inspector Surabo vehicle, we went to Palm Court, we park up and he been trying fuh put he self in the right spot where like where the white car was.
I was sitting in the back seat, Mr. Bacon was in the front seat and Inspector Surabo been driving, he take out he laptop and he cellphone, and he went and do something […] then he start explaining to we that he went back to the night of the shooting and he put Mark Richmond number, and it show that he went on the spot on the night,” Bascom told the press conference.
According to the Police Sergeant, the data his colleague unearthed on the scene revealed that the murder suspect had met with a prominent businessman on the East Bank of Demerara on the night of the shooting.
However, Attorney Hughes butted in and said, “There is further information on that. But of course, a lot of this information is highly confidential, and unless there is a guarantee for the safety of Mr. Bascom, that’s not gonna be released initially.”
Hughes has written a letter to President Irfaan Ali requesting witness protection and a Commission of Inquiry into the accusations.
But President Ali had said he is not against granting Bascom protection but wants to review the letter that his Attorney sent.
“His Excellency is out of the country, we don’t know when he is going to respond, but we have another course of action we will take if it appears to us we are likely solicit the assistance where a citizen is saying to the President, my life is in danger, I have done X, Y, and Z,” he stated.
Moreover, Bascom revealed that his home is under unusual surveillance.
“Today at my home, a guy come with a haversack and a flap hat in he face, he ride pass my house and as he pass he was watching at the house. He then stopped and act like he fixing the bicycle chain, watching up by the house, and then ride up back. Where I living, they got a little bridge to go to the other village, he didn’t go to the other village, and when one of my nieghbours ride behind him to see where he going, he did already gone.”
Also on Wednesday, the city businessman Azruddin Mohamed said that one of his competitors in the gold industry is the driving force behind the allegations made by the Police Sergeant. In fact, he alleged that Bascom and the gold dealer are close friends.
Notwithstanding, the GPF had said that the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) completed its probe and is awaiting legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
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