Two protesters arrested while calling for the removal of Public Works Minister Juan Edghill following the MV Barima tragedy have formally lodged complaints with the Guyana Police Force’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), seeking disciplinary action against officers, a finding that their arrests were unlawful, and assurances that citizens’ constitutional rights to peaceful protest will be protected.
Sherlina Nageer told Kiskadee Watch yesterday that she and fellow protester Salima Bacchus-Hinds filed statements with the OPR last week, while other members of the group have submitted supporting statements.
The complaints, she said, outline the protesters’ version of what happened during their arrest on July 22 and call for an investigation into the conduct by police officers, including an alleged physical assault by a plainclothes female officer. “We’re really calling for disciplinary measures,” Nageer said. “It’s also addressing the fact that there were no grounds to arrest us. They told us they were arresting us, and so in our minds that’s an illegal arrest.”
Nageer said the group is asking the OPR to review witness statements and any available surveillance footage before determining whether officers acted improperly. “It would be really great if they reviewed our statements, the video cameras that are there, the video evidence, and agreed that their officers acted unprofessionally and they’re the ones who breached the law, not us,” she said.
Nageer said they are hoping that the investigation results in greater protection of Guyanese citizens’ constitutional rights. “We would like some kind of reassurance to the general Guyanese public that they will not, in the future, violate anybody else’s constitutional rights to free expression and assembly and peaceful picketing,” she said. “It’s not about what happened to me as an individual. It’s the precedent and the message for the larger society.”
The complaints stem from the arrest of three protesters during a demonstration outside the Kingston Seawall, where they had gathered to call for Edghill’s removal over the MV Barima tragedy. The arrests occurred as hundreds of people assembled nearby for a National Interfaith Prayer Service honouring the victims and survivors of the disaster.
Following her release, Nageer told Kiskadee Watch that five persons had initially gathered near the electronic billboard at the Kingston Seawall holding placards calling for Edghill to resign, but only three protesters were arrested. She said police instructed the group to move from the area and, when they refused, officers physically removed them before arresting them for alleged unlawful assembly.
According to Nageer, the protesters were detained for approximately one hour before being released on self-bail and instructed to return to the police station the following day.
She maintained at the time that the protest was peaceful and silent, with participants standing in a public place holding placards without blocking traffic or using amplified sound. The group later moved closer to the area where the National Interfaith Prayer Service was taking place, but Nageer insisted they had no intention of disrupting the observance and were themselves mourning those who died in the maritime tragedy.
Nageer has argued that accountability for the tragedy should extend beyond lower-level employees to those responsible for overseeing the agencies involved. “We’ve seen too many cases with other tragedies where a few, let’s call them small people, get thrown under the bus and they get blamed for everything,” she previously told Kiskadee Watch. “The higher-ups who have also failed, nothing happens to them. That’s why we called Edghill out. He’s the minister. This is under his watch. We need real accountability.”
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