Attorneys ask for acquittal

Drug plane case:

Defense attorneys Irvin Kanhai, Michella LauKerssenberg and Vishal Rambharos on Monday told the court that Harti L and Dionathan M did not smuggle 488.680 grams of cocaine into the country on March 13, 2018. They therefore asked that their clients be acquitted. The defendants are charged with drug trafficking in association with Ramchender Oedit. The prosecution has demanded that the defendants be sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Kanhai and Lau-Kerssenberg claimed that Harti L does not know Oedit. On March 12, 2018 the police received information that drugs had been dropped on March 11 and that another drop would take place on March 13 on the property of Oedit. The defense team pointed out that the plane had never been on the property before. They also pointed out that the Counter Terrorism Unit put the police on the wrong track in order to protect Tibiti.

Kanhai and Lau-Kerssenberg pointed out that Harti L did not know who the property belonged to. A worker claimed that he had never spotted a plane landing on the property.

Harti L claimed that he was put under pressure by the police when he told investigators that he had come to

Suriname twice. He was on his way to Tibiti when he was forced to land. The airstrip in the Saramacca District was not his final destination. The defendants claimed that they were already in Guyanese airspace when the police shot at the plane.

Rambharos pointed out that the plane was already out of the jurisdiction of the police when they opened fire. “The pilot chose out his own free will to fly back,” said the defense attorney who added that the unlawful actions of the police forced the suspect to commit a crime which means that the evidence was obtained unlawfully. The trial will resume on November 18.