标签： Guyana

In the wake of the MV Barima ferry capsizing incident that triggered an official presidential probe, Guyana’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) has drawn controversy over its new broadcasting rules, the Guyana Press Association (GPA) confirmed in an official statement published Monday, October 19, 2026.

Following a closed-door meeting between GPA executive leadership and COI commissioners held on October 15, the press body outlined the commission’s final stance: while real-time live streaming of inquiry hearings will remain prohibited, media outlets will be permitted to broadcast proceedings after a mandatory two-hour delay. Javed Shadick, Secretary to the MV Barima COI, formalized this arrangement in a written confirmation, noting that local media organizations retain the right to record and air the entirety of public hearings, barring any temporary restrictions the commission may enact at its own discretion.

This policy marks a clear break from longstanding precedent across Guyana and the wider Caribbean region, where past commissions of inquiry have regularly offered unimpeded live public access to their proceedings. The rejection of real-time broadcasting has already drawn sharp criticism from the Alliance For Change (AFC), an opposition political party that holds no legislative seats in Guyana’s parliament.

In a public statement, the AFC condemned the commission’s decision, arguing that the restriction on live streaming injects unnecessary secrecy into an inquiry that already faces lingering public doubts over its credibility. The party emphasized that blocking firsthand public access deprives Guyanese citizens of the ability to independently monitor the probe, evaluate its fairness, and confirm that the inquiry proceeds without improper external influence.

The legal team representing Guyana’s Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed has launched a sharp attack on the credibility and impartiality of the lead prosecution witness in the ongoing US extradition proceedings against the politician-turned-businessman, claiming the senior police official is acting out of partisan loyalty to the sitting government. In arguments delivered to the court during a bail application, defense attorney Roysdale Forde laid out a pattern of targeted actions by Senior Superintendent Prem Narine, head of the Guyana Police Force’s Special Branch intelligence unit, against his client, who is wanted by US authorities to face trial on charges of money laundering, wire fraud, and mail fraud connected to the gold trading business he runs with his father.

Forde told the court presided over by Justice Faith McGusty that Narine holds multiple conflicting roles across the separate cases against Mohamed: he is the key witness for the state in the extradition hearing, while also serving as the lead investigator, virtual complainant, and prosecution witness in the separate firearms and attempted perversion of justice charges filed against Mohamed and two of his employees. Those local charges stem from an alleged October 12 incident where Mohamed is accused of firing shots near Narine’s Georgetown home. Narine has claimed that Mohamed identified him as a target and labeled him the country’s top national security threat, but Forde emphasized that the police intelligence chief has failed to produce any concrete evidence to back up these claims.

A further troubling detail raised by the defense is Narine’s admission that he carried out surveillance on Mohamed without formal authorization from the Police Commissioner, a violation of standard police operating protocols. Forde also told the court that Narine was present at the Region Four Returning Office during elections activities, alongside officials who now form the current governing administration. The defense further argued that Narine received an accelerated promotion through the police ranks in what appears to be a reward for his partisan actions against the opposition leader, noting that the intelligence chief has actively positioned himself as a loyal ally of the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic while hiding behind a veneer of professional policing.

Mohamed and his two co-accused employees have already been granted bail set at GY$750,000 each in connection with the firearms and attempted justice perversion charges. This is not the first time Mohamed has faced legal action from Guyanese authorities in recent months. Prior to the current charges, he was arrested for claims he operated a boat without valid personal and vessel licenses, and for allegedly flying a drone over the private residence of Guyanese President Irfaan Ali in Leonora, West Coast Demerara. One of Mohamed’s employees is also facing separate charges under the country’s Civil Aviation Act linked to the drone incident.

In the latest round of anonymous informal polling for the next United Nations Secretary-General, all seven declared candidates have received at least one ‘discourage’ vote — the informal equivalent of a veto — from a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a senior anonymous diplomat confirmed Friday. Outgoing Secretary-General António Guterres will conclude his second five-year term on December 31, 2026, leaving the global body’s top post to be filled through the long-standing Security Council selection process, which precedes a confirmation vote by the UN General Assembly.

During ongoing proceedings of a presidential Commission of Inquiry (COI) investigating the sinking of the MV Barima ferry in Guyana, senior military officials have revealed critical gaps in the country’s search-and-rescue air capabilities that hampered response efforts three months after the disaster. The testimony, delivered in mid-October 2026, centers on the state of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) helicopter fleet when the ferry sank in July 2026.

According to evidence given to the five-member inquiry panel, the GDF had only one airworthy helicopter available to deploy for search and recovery operations in the weeks following the sinking: a US$5.9 million Bell 407 single-engine helicopter purchased by the force almost a year prior. Two additional GDF aircraft, a US$10.1 million Bell 429 and a Bell 412, were classified as non-deployable and unserviceable at the time, with questions about their maintenance status deferred to the GDF’s maintenance management department by testifying air corps officers.

Captain Simon Gordon, the GDF Air Corps Flight Operations Officer, confirmed the fleet’s limited operational status in his testimony. “As was captured in my log, on the 19th of July 2026, only one helicopter was used up until the 27th, because that was the only serviceable helicopter at the time and it so happened to have been a single-engine aircraft,” Gordon told the commission. He declined to speculate on the operational restrictions that kept the Bell 407 confined to coastal search areas, deferring that explanation to the helicopter’s flight crews, but noted the clear performance gap between single and multi-engine rotorcraft.

Gordon emphasized that multi-engine aircraft offer greater operational range, longer flight time, and critical safety redundancies that enable offshore operations. “If one engine fails, the aircraft can still fly. If it’s a single-engine aircraft and that engine fails, then that produces another casualty or a non-enjoyable situation,” he told the COI.

Bell 407 pilot Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Langevine echoed those limitations, confirming the aircraft’s regulatory and safety restrictions for offshore flight. “The Bell 407 being a single-engine aircraft operates with limitations as it relates to going offshore. That aircraft is not certified to fly offshore unless there are certain parameters that can be met in terms of glide distance and operational capability. As far as the night operations go, that is also a limitation for the single-engine Bell 407 aircraft,” Langevine said. He added that the helicopter was fitted with a searchlight to allow limited nocturnal search operations on the first night of the response.

Langevine told the commission he flew search missions on the Bell 407 on July 22, 24 and 25. On his first flight, the crew traveled along the coastline between Hampton Court and Waini Point, scanning for survivors or remains of passengers from the sunken ferry, when dozens of bodies had already been recovered from coastal waters. Search operations were conducted at low altitudes between 20 and 40 feet above the water, and the crew did not use binoculars, relying instead on visual spotting. Langevine noted the crew could safely spot remains up to three nautical miles from the aircraft, but the mission focused exclusively on coastal areas because command had informed the crew most bodies were washing ashore rather than remaining offshore.

In a high-profile court hearing held in Guyana on Friday, 16 October 2026, opposition leader Azruddin Mohamed and two of his staff members have been granted bail, with each required to post GY$750,000 to secure their release. The trio faces three joint criminal charges: illegal possession of a .32 caliber pistol, unlawful possession of three matching rounds of ammunition, and attempting to pervert the course of justice by discharging a firearm near the residence of Senior Superintendent Prem Narine, head of the Police Special Branch and a key witness in ongoing extradition proceedings connected to the case.

According to court documents, the alleged offense of attempting to obstruct justice took place on 12 October 2026. Prosecutors claim that the firearm was discharged in the immediate area of Narine’s home, while Narine is preparing to testify in extradition proceedings targeting both Azruddin Mohamed and his father, Nazar Mohamed. The father-son pair are currently wanted by United States authorities on charges of money laundering and other financial crimes tied to their family-owned gold trading enterprise.

All three defendants — Mohamed, his driver Eugene Thorne, and videographer Mario Mohamed — entered formal not guilty pleas to all charges brought against them. A three-person defense team led by senior attorneys Siand Dhurjon, Damien Da Silva, and Roysdale Forde presented eight specific legal arguments to justify the grant of bail, which Magistrate Faith Mc Gusty ultimately accepted. The magistrate set bail at GY$250,000 for each individual charge, bringing the total bail amount per defendant to GY$750,000.

Among the key defense arguments that swayed the court were several procedural irregularities in the prosecution’s case. Defense attorneys highlighted that the firearm was allegedly discovered at the Kitty Police Station while Dhurjon was present on location, rather than during the initial search of Mohamed’s vehicle at the intersection of Vlissengen Road and Sandy Babb Street. They also noted that after the first search, a second police officer drove the vehicle back to the police station, creating a gap in chain of custody. Additionally, the charging documents incorrectly list Alexander Street as the location where the defendants were found in possession of the weapon and ammunition, rather than the original search location.

The defense also pointed out that prosecutors failed to provide the court with surveillance camera footage that would confirm the loud noise reported at the scene was in fact a gunshot, and that the discharge originated from Mohamed’s vehicle. The two sides also disagree on how many people were occupying the vehicle at the time of the incident. Finally, the defense emphasized that Mohamed is currently out on bail in a separate connected extradition case and has consistently complied with all existing bail requirements, a track record the magistrate took into consideration.

In addition to the bail sum, the court imposed a strict set of 10 bail conditions that all three defendants must follow leading up to their next court date, scheduled for 6 November 2026. All defendants are required to disclose their residential addresses to the court and notify authorities immediately if they change their place of residence. All passports and other travel documents must be surrendered to law enforcement; Mohamed has already handed over his travel documentation as part of his bail conditions in the ongoing extradition matter, while Thorne and Mario Mohamed were ordered to turn over theirs immediately. No applications for replacement travel documents will be permitted without explicit court approval, and none of the defendants are allowed to leave Guyana without formal permission from the court.

Further conditions require the defendants to provide current employment information and active telephone contact details, updating both the court and prosecution promptly if any contact information changes. They are barred from directly or indirectly contacting, threatening, intimidating, or attempting to influence any prosecution witnesses connected to the case, and are forbidden from obstructing or interfering with any prosecution work. All three defendants are required to report regularly to the Kitty Police Station as part of their bail terms.

The most stringent conditions relate directly to the witness in the case: defendants are not permitted any contact, through themselves or third-party agents, with Senior Superintendent Prem Narine or his immediate family members. They are also required to maintain a constant distance from Narine’s home and are completely barred from entering Barr Street between Vlissengen Road and Alexander Street, the residential block where Narine resides. Prosecutors had requested a three-week adjournment to complete disclosure of all evidence in the case, a request that was granted as proceedings move forward toward the November hearing.

In a developing political controversy rocking Guyana, the nation’s Director of Public Prosecutions has formally approved criminal charges against opposition leader Azruddin Mohamed and two members of his staff, linked to a late-night shooting incident outside the residence of a top police intelligence official who is a key witness in a U.S. extradition request targeting the opposition leader.

The three men face three total counts: unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, and attempted perversion of the course of justice. None of the filed charges relate to the actual discharge of a weapon, despite the chaotic sequence of events that unfolded late Monday night.

According to official police accounts, the incident unfolded outside the Kitty neighborhood home of Senior Superintendent Prem Narine, head of the Guyana Police Force’s Special Branch, the country’s primary intelligence unit. Narine alleges that the vehicle carrying Mohamed, his driver Eugene Thorne, and videographer Mario Mohamed passed his home twice on the night in question. On the second pass, Narine told police he heard what sounded like a gunshot, took immediate cover, and returned fire using his service-issued handgun.

Initial police reports noted that one spent .32 caliber shell was recovered across the street from Narine’s residence, and a subsequent update added that four spent 9mm casings were also collected from the scene. Law enforcement officials have stated that a handgun loaded with three live rounds was found in the car that the three men were traveling in when they were detained.

Internal sources close to the legal process confirm that the charges have already been formally read to the three defendants, who are scheduled to make their first court appearance this Friday. If convicted on the firearm possession charge, the men face a fine ranging from 3,000 to 15,000 Guyanese dollars and a prison sentence of one to three years, with identical penalties applied to the separate ammunition possession count. The charge of obstructing the course of justice carries an additional one-year prison term if the trio is found guilty.

Mohamed, who leads Guyana’s main opposition party We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), has forcefully denied all allegations and pushed back against the police narrative. Through his attorney Siand Dhurjon, Mohamed claims law enforcement officers planted the recovered firearm under the accelerator pedal of his vehicle to frame him. Going further, the opposition leader has accused police of orchestrating the entire incident in an attempt to kill him.

The shooting incident comes against a backdrop of ongoing legal proceedings tied to a U.S. extradition request, in which Narine is the lead witness. Mohamed and his father Nazar Mohamed are wanted by federal authorities in Florida, where they face trial on charges of money laundering and other financial crimes connected to their family-owned gold trading business.

In prior testimony before the magistrate court handling the extradition request, Narine claimed that Azruddin Mohamed poses a significant threat to Guyana’s national security and has been linked to multiple homicide cases despite never being formally charged in connection to those killings. The latest charges have amplified political tensions in the country, as the opposition decries the legal action as a politically motivated attack ahead of the scheduled court appearance.