Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Bibi Shalimar Ali-Hack said that there is nothing unlawful about the state using a suspect in the Lusignan Massacre to testify against other accused persons.
Her comments were made in response to Attorney Nigel Hughes, who accused the DPP of making a plea-bargain deal with a man who admitted to participating in the Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek massacres, in which 33 people were killed in total.
“The people of Lusignan and Guyana appear not to have been made aware that the person who admitted and confessed to being with ‘Fineman’ and participating in the Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek massacres, Mr Dwane Williams was not and will not be prosecuted by the state for any of these 33 murders he participated in. He has been granted a free pass by the state for killing not only the people of Lusignan, but those in Bartica and Lindo Creek,” the attorney pointed out.
Hughes further referred to the court documents in which Williams admitted in his testimony to being in the company of Fineman during several massacres. Williams was charged along with two others for the death of those persons who were killed during the 2008 Lusignan Massacre; however, he subsequently became the prosecution’s main witness during the trial last year after the charges were dropped.
The attorney alluded to the fact that just a week before the trial commenced, the charges against Williams were mysteriously dropped by the state and he was released. “Perhaps the people of Lusignan may wish to inquire of the attorney general and the DPP, why the state, which is responsible for protecting and serving them, would let a self-confessed murderer of 33 citizens go free without a single charge. No other person in the history of this country has enjoyed such a pardon,” the attorney stressed.
However, Williams testifying for the state is very evident, but he was also charged, which contradicts other aspects of Hughes’ contention that Williams was allowed to go free without a single charge.
“Based on the facts from the investigations, Dwane Williams was an accomplice. lt is an old common law practice to allow an accomplice to an offence to testify for the prosecution. lt has always been done in the criminal law practice, and continues to be done. lt is a lawful practice with which all criminal law practitioners are quite familiar,” the DPP said.
