Last Updated on Thursday, 9 November 2023, 18:42 by Denis Chabrol
Bibi Gopaul and Barry Small.
Even as the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) announced on Thursday that Bibi Gopaul would be recalled to continue serving her 25-year sentence for the murder of her daughter, Neesa Gopaul, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said those responsible for her premature release of the woman could be punished.
“When a full investigation is held, the question of accountability will have to be addressed,” he told a news conference.
He said Gopaul’s “early release cannot stand”.
The GPS, at 6:40 PM Thursday, said that “Gopaul was arrested by ranks of the Guyana Police Force and was handed over to the prison authority at 17:27 hrs this afternoon at the New Amsterdam Prison.”
Earlier Wednesday, the Prison Service said the woman’s 25-year sentence was inaccurately calculated and she was released from prison.
In contrast to a decision by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the GPS said it erroneously calculated the 30-year sentence, minus the five years on remand, from October 10, 2010 when she was first remanded instead. of March 5, 2015 when she was convicted and the sentence was imposed. “From the clear language of the order of the CCJ, the sentence should have been reckoned to start to run from the 5th March 2015,” she said.
The Prison Service said the the CCJ in its judgement had ordered that prisoner Gopaul serve 25 years from the date of the conviction.
“In all of the circumstances… a just and proportionate sentence is 30 years imprisonment with no eligibility for parole before the expiration of 15 years. From this sentence, the period of 5 years will be deducted for time spent in custody while on remand, with the practical consequences that from the date of conviction in 2015, Gopaul will spend a maximum of 25 years in prison,” the CCJ’s judgment states.
The Guyana High Court had sentenced Bibi Gopaul to 106 years imprisonment for the murder of her daughter, but the CCJ Guyana’s law provides for murder convict should be sentenced to life imprisonment or such other period being not less than 15 years, rather than 106 years that had been imposed on Gopaul. The court found that, in this case, there had been no fair and just sentencing process and said the 106-year sentence with a starting point of 60 years as imposed by the High Court “exceeded the life expectancy of a human being and was grossly disproportionate and manifestly excessive.” The CCJ said the High Court’s sentence and the manner in which it did violated the constitutional right to a fair hearing and tantamount to inhuman and degrading punishment. Also, the Guyana Court of Appeal’s 45-year reduction was “manifestly excessive” and the period of ineligibility for parole was not stated.
Neesa’s body was found inside the suitcase, along with her passport and other documents, on March 2, 2010 submerged in a creek on the Linden Soesdyke Highway.
The CCJ on August 19, 2022 quashed the murder charge against Bibi Gopaul’s partner, Jarvis Small after the court found that it was pure speculation that Small planned to kill Gopaul to avoid being prosecuted for sexually assaulting her, no evidence that he had possessed the pair of dumbbells that was found in the suitcase with her body, and it was impossible to conclude that he was the killer because he said he knew who was the killer.
