Georgetown, Guyana – 27 October 2026: Fazil Karimbaksh, the embattled Deputy Police Commissioner and sitting head of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) currently facing formal rape allegations, has formally rejected the legitimacy of a viral leaked audio recording that purportedly captures him negotiating a GY$5 million hush payment to his accuser, arguing the entire clip is a fabricated artificial intelligence deepfake.
The official position was laid out in an official statement released by Karimbaksh’s legal representative Rizwaun Mohamed on Tuesday evening. “Our client categorically and vehemently disavows that this recording represents a real conversation between himself and the complainant, and denies ever making any of the statements falsely attributed to him. This is AI-generated synthetic content that has been engineered to mimic his voice for malicious ends,” Mohamed emphasized. The legal team went on to state that they are pushing for a fully transparent, unbiassed probe into both the original rape claims and the disputed audio, free from public speculation, external interference, or pre-emptive judgment. Mohamed also warned that his client will pursue full civil and criminal legal recourse against any individual or organization found responsible for creating, distributing, or publishing the fraudulent synthetic material, once forensic examinations confirm the legal basis for such proceedings. The team added that no further substantive commentary on the audio will be released until independent forensic analysis of the recording is completed.
This claim has been immediately and forcefully refuted by high-profile local social media activist Leroy Smith, who has been leading a sustained public campaign demanding Karimbaksh face formal charges and be immediately suspended from his post. Smith, who previously organized public demonstrations outside SOCU’s Camp Road headquarters in Georgetown, dismissed the AI deepfake allegation as a deliberate distraction tactic. He confirmed that the Facebook post hosting the audio is fully legitimate, and that he has verified not just the recording’s provenance, but also two separate letters allegedly penned by Karimbaksh to telecom provider Digicel, in which the senior officer requested private phone records for personal, non-official use. “While the rape-accused Karimbaksh dithers over hiding behind empty legal threats instead of challenging our published evidence openly in a court of law, we will continue to widely share the verified audio clip and the authenticated Digicel correspondence, and we stand fully ready to defend the authenticity of every piece of evidence we have released if we are summoned to court,” Smith stated.
The unfolding controversy is further complicated by longstanding institutional gridlock within Guyana’s police oversight system. Recent legal advice issued by the Solicitor-General confirmed that sitting Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken has no statutory authority to unilaterally discipline or remove a Deputy Police Commissioner from their post. All disciplinary proceedings for officers ranked above Inspector fall under the exclusive purview of the Police Service Commission (PSC). However, the PSC has remained non-functional for an extended period, as it has not yet been reconstituted with new nominees, a process that cannot move forward until the National Assembly concludes its annual parliamentary recess.
Deputy Police Commissioner’s purported voice is AI-generated- lawyer; social media activist insists it’s authentic
