In an extraordinary move this afternoon, the Guyana Police Force issued a statement to “clarify” media reports on the testimony of Head of the Force’s Special Branch, Senior Superintendent Prem Narine.

Giving evidence in the ongoing extradition case against businessmen Nazar and Azruddin Mohamed on Thursday, Senior Superintendent Narine admitted to destroying a notebook that contained information regarding the arrest of the Mohameds and a meeting they had with a US Marshal after their arrest.

This afternoon, the Guyana Police Force issued a statement indicating that during his testimony, Narine produced and tendered the relevant official records required for the proceedings, which the Force said “included his statement detailing the actions taken in relation to the matter, the relevant Station Diary record, the executed arrest warrants and other documents required for the proceedings”.

The Police Force said in response to questions from the Defence concerning personal working notes used in preparing his statement, Senior Superintendent Narine testified that those notes had been disposed of in the official incinerator at Special Branch in keeping with established procedures for the disposal of sensitive working documents that were no longer required.

In his testimony, Narine told the Court that he shredded then burnt the notebook back in January, more than three months after the arrest of the Mohameds and the start of the extradition proceedings against them.

The Police Force today said Senior Superintendent Narine testified that the working notes contained “no information of evidential value to the committal proceedings and that the relevant information had already been incorporated into his statement”.

The Guyana Police Force said it therefore rejects any suggestion that documents of evidential value relating to the proceedings were destroyed, explaining that the relevant official records were preserved and tendered before the Court.

The Guyana Police Force did not respond to media queries about its statement, even as journalists provided quotations of the actual testimony of the senior Police Officer.

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