- Leonora Police Station implicated again
Ranks of the Leonora Police Station are being blamed for the death of a man who was in their custody and received a thrashing, which – according to his relatives – has led to his demise. Dead is Asif Rahim Khatoon, a fisherman of Meten-Meer-Zorg. According to reports, Khatoon was arrested on an abusive language allegation and was reportedly stomped, beaten and gun butted by the arresting ranks.
The fisherman was hospitalized at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), nursing injuries sustained from the alleged beating. Doctors, according to relatives, have since confirmed that Khatoon suffered a broken jaw and several lacerations. Khatoon’s wife claimed that she did not summon the ranks, who showed up in black clothes. The man’s wife recalled that they handcuffed her husband and placed him to lie down in the back of the police van.
According to the woman, when she visited her husband at the station the following day, she found him in a terrible state, with his face badly swollen. After inquiring from the police about her husband’s condition, they told her that he had been beaten by other prisoners. The woman said the man remained insistent however, that he was beaten by ranks of the police station. She said she spoke to an officer and told him of her husband’s accusation and he allowed her to take her husband to the hospital under police guard.
The mother of four explained that she took her husband to the GPHC after her efforts to get him treatment at a west demerara hospital were futile, since she was given only referrals. According to her, she was informed that his jaw was broken and he would need to undergo surgery. She took her husband home yesterday morning after he called her pleading that she takes him out since he hasn’t received any treatment as yet.
The woman says she fulfilled his request and took him home yesterday morning, where he later succumbed to his injuries. The woman is calling for whoever is responsible to be charged for her husband’s death. This is not the first time that the Leonora Police Station has been involved in a case of brutalizing persons in their custody. In October 2009, a teenager was burnt on his genitals, which resulted in public outcries and court proceedings.
