Opposition Rejects Government’s Shooting Narrative

By Mark DaCosta- Guyanese woke this week to an extraordinary confrontation between the State and the man elected to be its principal parliamentary critic. According to the Opposition Leader’s office, Mr Mohamed’s vehicle was riddled with bullets by the head of the Special Branch. The Government and police say the Opposition Leader’s party came under suspicion after gunfire erupted near the officer’s home. Between those two accounts lies a question about whether justice in Guyana can be seen to operate without fear or favour.

The office says Senior Superintendent Prem Narine fired on the car carrying Mr Mohamed and his staffers, Eugene Thorne and Mario Mohamed. It insists the three men fired no shots and carried no weapon. They describe being hauled from the vehicle at gunpoint and forced to the ground, where they say they were beaten and stomped upon. One masked man allegedly planted a boot on Mr Mario Mohamed’s neck. Mr Azruddin Mohamed claims the officer screamed, “I will kill you! I will kill you!” The statement describes this as a “deliberate assassination attempt”, and adds that all three men bore bruising and complained of pain at the station.

Full coveragePolice Detain Azruddin Mohamed After Gunfire Near Prem Narine’s Kitty Home17 reports

The competing version emerged first from the police. Mr Narine, who is testifying in the United States extradition proceedings against Mr Mohamed, reported that a vehicle passed his residence, returned, and that he heard what he believed was a gunshot as it approached. The Government separately said the men had been filming his residence. The police later acknowledged that Mr Narine fired at the Opposition Leader’s car, but said he did so only after coming under fire. The Opposition Leader’s office seizes on this shift. It points to “materially different assertions” between the initial police account and the Government’s later claim that shots came from Mr Mohamed’s vehicle, which it says was made without forensic proof.