Guyana police want to question Guyanese activist Rickford Burke, based in New York, as part of their investigation into allegations that two media workers in Guyana attempted to extort money from a local businessman.
The two media workers, Alex Wayne 49, and Gary Eleazar, 41, appeared before Magistrate Fabian Azore at the Cove and John Magistrate’s Court earlier this week with the prosecution alleging that between August 27 and September 23 they conspired together and with other persons published a defamatory libel against Afras Mohamed with an intent to extort the sum of GUY$150,000 (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents).
They were each granted GUY$100,000 on each of the two charges and if found guilty, they could be sentenced to a maximum of three years imprisonment. They will return to court on November 1.
On Monday, police issued a wanted bulletin for a 45-year-old businessman who has been implicated by Eleazar and Wayne and is wanted for questioning in relation to the publication of the alleged defamatory and libellous story.
In a statement issued late on Thursday night, police said that they want to question Burke for “conspiracy to commit a felony to wit publication of defamatory libel in order to extort money.”
Police said Burke allegedly committed the offence on August 27, 2022, urging anyone who has information about the whereabouts of Burke to contact the law enforcement agencies.
But in a statement on Thursday night, Burke said that he was not afraid of a “plot” by certain members of the police force and members of the State’s legal fraternity to frame him as part of a transnational repression scheme to stop him from speaking out.
Burke has denied posting any content on the Facebook page of a media organisation nor has he been part of any effort to get money from the businessman.
This is the second Guyana Police Force (GPF) wanted bulletin to have been issued for Burke with the first in December 2021 when he was cited for the incitement of hostility or ill-will on the grounds of race in violation of the Racial Hostility Act; sedition, use of a computer system to intimidate in violation of the Cyber Crime Act; seditious libel, inciting the provocation of the breach of peace, and inciting public terror.
