Last Updated on Friday, 4 September 2026, 1:02 by Writer
The head of the Guyana Police Force’s Special Branch department, Senior Superintendent Prem Narine, on Thursday admitted to a number of inconsistencies in his written statement on his involvement in collecting documents related to the United States’ (US) extradition request for city businessmen Azruddin and Nazar Mohamed.
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Siand Dhurjon, Mr Narine at one point described a factual inaccuracy as a “typographic error” and in another instance sought to include an omitted sentence as part of his explanation.
In the first instance, Mr Dhurjon asked Mr Narine whether it was true that he had received the Authority To Proceed (ATP) from the Minister of Home Affairs, Oneidge Walrond, on October 31, 2025, in his statement on November 11, 2025 to which he responded that “what’s in the statement is not (sic) was supposed to have read…it’s a typographic error.”
Secondly, the lawyer told the police officer that he recorded in his statement that he uplifted the request for extradition from the Minister of Foreign Affairs in relation to the request made by the US.
“Not only did you say you received the ATP, the authority to proceed from the Home Affairs Minister. You said in your written statement that you received the request for extradition from the Minister of Foreign Affairs,” Mr Dhurjon said.
In response, Mr Narine said “yes”.
Again, Mr Narine said that was also a typographical error.
Mr Narine agreed with the lawyer that one of the most important things a police officer does after an investigation is to write a statement, and that transparency is one of the purposes of a police statement.
After the Head of Special Branch, a policeman for 26 years, acknowledged that a policeman records only first-hand information, the lawyer put to him and obtained a confession “that’s true” that according to what he told the court, he never saw the home affairs minister or the foreign minister sign anything that morning.
In contrast, the lawyer told Mr Narine that he got the documents from a female staff member at the Attorney General’s chambers.
Pressed on what was a typographical error and how he slipped and typed an entire paragraph, the police officer explained that he received the ATP and the Section 6 Certificate, both of which came respectively from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Home Affairs whose signatures he was familiar with and knew that it came from there, but he actually uplifted them from the Attorney General’s chambers after they came from the respective ministries.
Mr Narine then agreed that nowhere in his two-page statement did he mention going to the Attorney General’s chambers on Carmichael Street.
The Mohameds are wanted by the US for federal trial on charges of alleged wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering connected to their billion dollar gold trading business.
