Two more witnesses testify, two others report sick
Guyana Chronicle
October 23, 2002

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TWO more witnesses testified but two others reported sick when the preliminary inquiry (PI) into the joint treason charge against political activists Mark Benschop and Phillip Bynoe continued yesterday.

Those whose depositions were taken by Magistrate Chandra Sohan are Rampersaud Dehuinauth, a driver/bodyguard attached to Office of the President and assigned to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Reepu Daman Persaud and Assistant Superintendent Wilfred Sandy of East La Penitence Police Station.

While they were both under oath, there were objections by and exchanges between lawyers involved in the case, all surrounding the fairness of questions posed by the Defence.

After Dehuinauth and Sandy were excused, Special Prosecutor Sanjeev Datadin said two more deponents were warned to attend Court but are ill.

Asked by the magistrate about the nature of their illness, Datadin said he did not have an opportunity to make contact with them.

Benschop and Bynoe are jointly charged with the capital offence and the PI continues today, with only Benschop in the dock and an arrest warrant still out for Bynoe.

The two accused were charged after mayhem, including arson and robbery, erupted elsewhere in Georgetown following the assault, last July 3, on the Presidential Secretariat, where two persons were shot dead by security forces.