Facing more than two hours of cross-examination on Tuesday, former Police Commander, Edgar Thomas, admitted under oath that he had no hard evidence to substantiate portions of his testimony in the Election Fraud trial.

Back in March 2020, Mr. Thomas was the Police Division 4 ‘A’ Commander.

He told the Court that ahead of the Elections, he participated in meetings with the then Police Commissioner and the Chief Election Officer and his Deputy on matters of security.

While being cross-examined by Defense Attorney, Ronald Daniels on Tuesday, Thomas said that he was responsible for the “external security” of the Region 4 Command Centre at the Ashmin’s Building. He said internal security was the responsibility of the Elections Commission and its security unit.

However, Thomas told the Court that on the day in question, he received “verbal” instructions from the then Commissioner of Police at the time, Leslie James to protect the Ashmin’s Building and all election material.

“All election material, everything,” Thomas said, while adding that included Statements of Poll (SOP).

When asked if the instruction was documented, the former Police Commander responded in the affirmative. However, he said it was recorded in a police diary that he had earlier admitted to destroying.

“So, you have absolutely nothing, as you stand there before this Court to corroborate that you received such instructions from the Commissioner of Police?” Daniels asked.

In response, Thomas said “I have nothing sir.”

It was, however, while being earlier cross-examined by Defence Attorney, Nigel Hughes that Thomas disclosed that his Police diary, which contained critical information on events that unfolded during the course of the 2020 General and Regional Election was deliberately destroyed by him.

“Because of the classified information it had inside, I destroyed it,” Thomas told the Court.

His admission came after almost 30 minutes of being grilled by Hughes on the matter.

Initially, he told the Court that the written record of the events that unfolded during the course of the election on March 5, 2020 and his communication with then Deputy Commissioner of Police Maxine Graham were kept in a diary given to him by the Guyana Police Force.

However, he claimed that “roughly four years ago” the diary “disappeared.”

Asked by Hughes whether he had reported that the diary had gone missing diary to anyone, Thomas responded in the negative.

Maintaining that the diary was missing, he attempted to dodge a series of questions posed by Hughes in relation to the “missing diary.”

But his story quickly changed from the diary being missing to it being “destroyed” by him.

He told the Court that the diary was not missing, and that it had been destroyed by him.

“Because of the classified information it had inside, I destroyed it,” Thomas told the Court, noting that it was the first time since 2020 that he had made such a disclosure.

Unable to justify his actions, the former Police Commander suggested to the Court that while the diary was given to him by the Police Force, it was his personal diary. He said it was his practice to destroy his personal diary.

The diary, according to Thomas, was the only document that could substantiate much of what he was telling the Court.

Thomas will return to the witness box tomorrow as the case continues.

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