Jagdeo defends innocence of Joint Services in Lindo Creek Massacre

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has taken issue with the fact that Commissioner Justice Donald Trotman commented on the quality of the police investigation into the massacre of the eight men even though the work of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) has not concluded.

At a news conference on Wednesday, the Opposition Leader referred to media reports of Justice Trotman saying that there was no legal, administrative or executive interest in thoroughly investigating the murders.

Jagdeo, who served as Head of State in 2008, when the massacre of the miners occurred, insisted that the COI is a “political activity” and a “sham.”

The police’s investigation into their deaths lasted four years and at the end, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) ordered that the case be closed and as such no one was ever prosecuted for the murders.

The police had arrested an alleged 15-year-old witness at the time who claimed he was a member of the Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins Gang and that it was the gang who killed the miners.

But family members believe it was members of the Joint Services who killed the miners.

Jagdeo, however, contended that the families’ theory is baseless and he condemned the fact that the COI is putting members of the Joint Services on trial.

“When we had that crime wave …it was the soldiers and the policemen who had to go out and protect our people, hunt down these people [criminal] and put their lives at risk and now they are on trial,” the former President said.

According to Jagdeo, “there is not a shred of evidence” to support the families’ contentions that it was the Joint Services ranks who killed the miners.