By  Wonita Stephens From Guyana Guardian

Less than 24hrs after a man was sentenced to four months in jail by Magistrate Russell Liverpool, who found him guilty for threatening the life of his wife and for breaking up several windows around the home, over half a dozen persons from the man’s neighbourhood have since contacted this publication claiming that the man was wrongfully sent to jail.

(See that story HERE)

As far as they are concerned, the entire story upon which the man was convicted was fabricated by his wife who allegedly wants to get him out of the house and take over his finances.

However, they say that they are not blaming the Magistrate, but have blamed the police for the man’s ‘demise’, and have since roasted the lawmen for not returning to the community to seek out any witnesses or evidence before charging and placing the man before the court.

“If dem bin come and ask de neighbours round hay wah happen, dem wudda get de whole facts a de story, “ said one neighbour who maintains that the police should have investigated the allegations properly before charging the man.

Originally, it was reported that the man in question, Sheeda Mohammed, had returned home sometime after midnight on the 4 January and discovered that his wife Seerani had thrown his clothes out in the street and locked him out of the house. The woman had claimed that she did so because he had been “drinking rum” all day and had been very abusive to her.
She told the court that upon returning home Mohammed began to bang on the door, while threatening to kill her. But out of fear, the woman said that she refused to open the door.
According to her, Mohammed went away and returned later with two cutlasses and began to “chop up” all of the glass windows on the lower flat of the house while threatening to kill her.

The woman had also claimed in her evidence that the man then scaled the veranda of the house, but fell asleep right there with his cutlasses after he had probably decided to take a short rest before proceeding inside the house.

Realizing that he was asleep the woman further told the court that she scaled a neighbour’s fence and went straight to the Sparendaam police station, where a report was made, and ranks later turned up and found the man indeed sleeping on the veranda with two cutlasses at his side.

But neighbours are insisting to this publication that this was not so, and that the woman is a “cantankerous Liar”

THEIR SIDE OF THE STORY

Neighbours claimed that Mr. Mohammed, a well-known greens vendor and his wife are both regular drinkers, and would sometimes drink late into the night.

After each drinking session, they claimed that the woman would always beat-up Mohammed and has thrown pepper in his eyes many times before.

“If you go round dis area and ask any bady, dem go tell you dat she does beat am bad”added another neighbour.

They claimed that after a week of successful sales, the woman who also assist her husband to sell the greens, seized all of the money and the goods on the evening of the 4 January and threw Mohammed’s clothing out of the house, unbeknownst to him, while claiming that she no longer wants him.
An unsuspecting Mohammed then returned home at about 9pm that night asking for food because he was hungry, and was shocked to see his clothes in the street.

As was customary the man continued to knock on the door of the house while inquiring what had happened, but his wife only opened the door suddenly to throw hot-pepper in his eyes and then quickly slam it shut again.

Mr. Mohammed then spent almost two hours trying to recover from the burning sensation, and had broken one or two windows in the process, and had indeed used abusive language towards his wife.

They added that later that night since the man was tired, and the house was locked up, he decided to climb up to the veranda and sleep, something the neighbours said that he does every time he is locked out of the house.

“He nah go ova de landin wid any cutlass or nutten” added a third neighbour, who question how is it possible for an intoxicated man to climb up a high veranda holding two cutlasses in his hands.

The neighbours further reasoned that the man only climbed up to the veranda to sleep, – a ‘fact’ that his wife knew before she (allegedly) later placed the two cutlasses next to him as he fell into a deep sleep, since he was tired from drinking rum all afternoon.

“She stage de crime scene and plant dem cutlass next to de man fuh sink am”, added a woman who said she is very much aware of the incident.

She added that the man was so tired and intoxicated that the police upon their arrival had a lot of trouble to get him to wake up from the veranda – which took almost 15 minutes.

Stating that the wife is literate, they lamented that by comparison the man is not educated and would not had been able to speak for himself before a magistrate, which would have been at his disadvantage.

They argued that had they knew that the wife had planned to lie, and the man was going to court, they would have pooled their money and take a lawyer to talk for him, since his wife practically has sole control over his cash and business and would not have helped him since she wants his things for herself.

Now uncertain what to do, they are hoping that the justice system can somehow review Mr. Mohammed’s case or at least order a further investigation and a retrial of the matter.

But at least one legal mind has since said that the only thing that they can do now is filed an appeal, which can cost somewhere around $400,000 – and hope that the court will treat the matter with urgency and grant him bail pending the hearing of that appeal.

However, the neighbours have since explained that they cannot afford even half of that sum.

Accepting that this may be the end of the matter, some of them lamented that the practice of women going to the police station and lying that a man threatened to kill them just because they want him out of a house, needs to stop.

“De court dem gat fuh start asking fuh witnesses and evidence before dem deh jailing these men base upon wah a woman alone seh. Because some a dem does lie to de court jus fuh get rid a de man” blurted an elderly man.

For more on this story go to: https://www.guyanaguardian.com/this-woman-is-a-cantankerous-liar-says-neighbours/