GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed has accused President Irfaan Ali of bullying and threatening the families of MV Barima tragedy victims, following a heated meeting between family of victims and the President at State House on Wednesday. According to reports by grieving relatives, they were allegedly berated and warned of arrest if they documented their loved ones’ exhumation.

The family members—who lost a mother, her two-year-old child, and a husband in the MV Barima incident—had sought the President’s intervention after their loved ones were buried in what they describe as a degrading manner. The initial burial, overseen by Minister Sonia Parag, involved an excavator digging a hole in a remote bush area where the single casket containing multiple family members was lowered and covered with dirt in the presence of the minister.

“We were promised a tomb burial,” Mohamed recounted on behalf of the family. Instead, the burial was conducted in an “open-out area” without proper ceremony or dignity.