GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Nov 3, CMC – The mother of the Opposition Leader, Azruddin Mohamed, has filed an application for bail before the High Court seeking the release of her son who has been remanded into custody until his next court appearance on November 24.
Mohamed and two police officers have been charged in the “alleged unauthorised access to, extraction, and disclosure of surveillance footage from the Guyana Police Force Command Centre” last month.
Lawyers for Bonita Mohamed have filed the application in which she is asking the High Court to quash the bail refusal and remand until November 24, arguing that the learned magistrate’s refusal of bail was “unreasonable, failed to take in to account relevant considerations, considered irrelevant considerations and was otherwise unlawful and said refusal ought to be quashed by order of certiorari”.
In the affidavit Mrs Mohamed said she fears that her 39-year old son would languish in jail for several years due to the slow pace at which indictable matters were being heard.
She said in Guyana, the fastest that indictable matters usually progress from the laying of the charge at the Magistrate’s Court, the resolution of committal proceedings, the Director of Public Prosecutions-review and laying of indictment stage to the resolution of a trial before judge and jury in the High Court is generally at least two years.
She said a review of the matters listed for trial before the Assizes in the last three years show that the lists primarily comprise far more serious offences such as murder, manslaughter, rape, sexual activity with child, and no offence under the Cyber Crime Act has ever been listed before the Assizes.
The mother said that her son had a right to obtain public information to prove that he was wrongfully accused by the State in a criminal complaint, particularly as he had learned of plans to destroy video footage containing evidence in his favour.
“This was especially in light of the fact that the footage debunked almost the totality of
the Government of Guyana’s case as embodied in its press release that The car was ‘heavily tinted’, though the inside of the car can be seen even from the grainy footage; “a chase then followed in contrast to the car driving at a calm and courteous speed and there was no chase but an abrupt interception as seen in the footage;”
Mohamed’s mother also contends that Magistrate Abigail Gibbs has a direct interest in the outcome of the proceedings because her relationship with a senior police officer said to have been instrumental in the investigation and charging in related proceedings out of which these emanated.
“I am advised by counsel that the principles of bias, automatic disqualification and presumed bias render the refusal of bail by the learned magistrate a nullity in all of the circumstances,” she is arguing.
No date has yet been given for the hearing of the matter.
CMC/gt/ir/2026