Marcus Bisram case: Magistrate to decide way forward on Jan. 27

Magistrate Renita Singh will deliver her ruling on January 27, 2020, on whether the Marcus Bisram trial will move forward via the paper committal process or preliminary inquiry.

Her announcement was made Monday afternoon at the Whim Magistrate’s Court following an in-camera session where several preliminary issues were dealt with relating to the case.

The defence team for Bisram is led by attorney Sanjeev Dattadin who argued that the initial ruling by senior Magistrate Alex Moore for a paper committal process is in keeping with their application at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) that dictated his client is granted a speedy trial.

Magistrate Singh will also rule on the number of witnesses the State is allowed to call to testify.

The News Room understands that the State, led by Special Prosecutor Stacey Goodings, had indicated that she wants to call some 15 to 18 of the 33 witnesses but the defence objected to this noting that they only want to cross-examine the main witness in the case.

The State also wants to conduct a site visit to the scene of the murder but the defence believes that this is merely a delay tactic.

The rulings by Magistrate Singh will hopefully pave the way forward in the case which has been marred by several delays since Bisram was extradited from the United States and charged with murder in late November 2019.

One of the delays included the recusal of Magistrate Moore who was directed to do so by Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag) Yonette Cummings-Edwards after he was accused of being biased to the prosecution.

Bisram is accused of instructing five men to murder Fiyaz Narinedatt, a Corentyne carpenter and father of two of #72 Village Corentyne between October 31 and November 1, 2016.

The men have since been committed to stand trial in the High Court and have been remanded to prison.

Narinedatt was found dead on the Number 70 Village Public Road on the Corentyne Coast.

Police at first treated the case as a road fatality but Georgetown Police was sent to the Corentyne and took on the case as a homicide.

The Police’s claim is that at the party on the night of October 31, Bisram made sexual advances against Narinedatt, including touching his penis, and when Narinedatt refused, by slapping him, he told others to kill the carpenter.