Police await legal advice after grilling Roger Khan on murders; lawyer says allegations in US court can’t be used

Last Updated on Saturday, 21 September 2019, 17:54 by Writer

Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan in the custody of police at the Guyana Police Force’s headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department.

Guyana Police Force detectives on Saturday grilled Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan about the murders of boxing coach, Donald Allison and Afro-Guyanese rights activist, Ronald Waddell, but his lawyer said the convicted drug lord did not implicate himself in any way.

Attorney-at-Law, Glen Hanoman said Khan remained in custody until police obtain legal advice. He said the entire interview by two police detectives was recorded by the Guyana Police Force. “They behaved themselves professionally and they were fair in how they conducted themselves,” Hanoman told Demerara Waves Online News/News-Talk Radio Guyana 103.1 FM.

Hanoman said claims by Selwyn Vaughn, in a United States Court that he is a former member of Khan’s alleged death squad that he had had knowledge of the drug trafficker’s suspicion in the killing of Allison and Waddell, could not form the legal basis for instituting homicide charges.

“No, they cannot…The statements that he made were made when a lawyer by (Robert) Simels was on trial and his trial had nothing to do with those events so what he said was largely irrelevant to Simels’ trial and he was never asked a single question on any of those allegations because they were so irrelevant and so his evidence was never tested on those issues,” the lawyer said.

Court records in a US appeal case-United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee–Cross–Appellant v. Robert SIMELS, Defendant–Appellant, Arienne Irving, Defendant–Cross–Appellee” state that “Vaughn testified that on one occasion Khan asked him to verify the location of Donald Allison, an enemy of Khan’s. Donald Allison was the brother of George Allison and a relative of David Clarke, both potential witnesses against Khan. Just after Vaughn informed Khan of Donald Allison’s location, gunmen drove up and murdered him. On another occasion Khan instructed Vaughn to report the location of Ronald Waddelle, a talk show host who regularly criticized Khan. Vaughn did so, and gunmen drove up and murdered Waddelle.”

Waddell was gunned down in his car outside his seaside Subryanville, Georgetown home in January 10, 2006 and Allison was shot dead outside the Ricola Boxing Gym in Agricola on the East Bank of Demerara, on September 8, 2005 because he had been believed to have been supporting heavily-armed gunmen in Buxton.

Asked whether the US court records could be notarised and used as the basis for charging Khan, the Attorney-at-Law said Guyanese police would have to question Vaughn. However, that raises other issues especially since he is under a US witness protection programme.

Khan fled Guyana illegally and was captured on June 15, 2006 in Suriname and flown directly to Trinidad from where he was collected by US law enforcement agents and flown to New York and immediately arraigned on drug trafficking charges. He was convicted and jailed in 2009.

The convict was released on July 8, 2019 and deported Friday. On landing at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport aboard an American Airlines commercial flight, Guyanese police took custody of him and he was whisked off to the Criminal Investigations Department Headquarters at Eve Leary where he was processed.

Khan was informed that he would be held for questioning in connection with the murders of Allison and Waddell before he was transferred to a police lockups outside Georgetown early Saturday morning. He was taken back to CID headquarters on Saturday where he was questioned about the murders.