Mohamed arrested in $800,000 surveillance-footage probe — lawyer denies payment claim
Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed was arrested on Wednesday, October 28, as police continue their probe into an alleged GUY$800,000 payment for surveillance footage of the October 12 shooting incident in Kitty.
Head of the Guyana Police Force’s Criminal Investigation Department, Deputy Commissioner Wendell Blanhum, confirmed the arrest. “I can confirm that Mr Azruddin Mohamed was arrested,” Blanhum said. Mohamed was detained at his Eccles, East Bank Demerara residence, taken to Police Headquarters at Eve Leary, and then transferred to the Kitty Police Station. He was held without charge at the time his attorney spoke to reporters.
The arrest follows the detention earlier in the week of a 20-year-old constable attached to the Force’s Command Centre, who police allege downloaded footage from the government’s Safe Country surveillance system and provided it in exchange for GUY$800,000. According to the police account, the constable downloaded the recording on October 23, saved it to a flash drive on Mohamed’s instructions, and was taken to Mohamed’s Houston residence the following day, where he was allegedly paid in cash. The footage relates to the October 12 shooting outside the Kitty home of Senior Superintendent Prem Narine, head of the Force’s Special Branch.
Mohamed’s attorney, Damien DaSilva, denies the payment claim outright. “At this point, we know of no such allegation of paying any money to any police constable,” DaSilva said, adding that Mohamed does not know the constable. DaSilva said the video Mohamed showed publicly was a compilation of footage obtained from several sources, including senior police officers and public-spirited citizens, whose identities he declined to reveal. He argued that even if the constable had received money, the matter should be handled departmentally rather than through criminal charges — but said the defence is preparing for the possibility of a charge. “I anticipate and expect him to be charged,” DaSilva said.
The constable and his mother remained in police custody on Wednesday, prompting the constable’s father to move to the High Court for their production in court or their release.
The arrest is Mohamed’s fourth since early September, according to regional reports. It is separate from the earlier charges arising from the October 12 incident itself, in which Mohamed, his driver and a videographer were charged with firearm and ammunition offences and attempting to pervert the course of justice, pleaded not guilty, and were placed on bail. The investigation into how the footage was obtained is a separate matter, and the payment allegations have not been tested in court.
Mohamed has maintained that the October 12 incident was a failed assassination attempt against him — a claim that has not been independently established.
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