Bail application for “Baby Skello” as APNU says PPP gov’t increasingly “repressive”

Last Updated on Sunday, 15 June 2025, 18:45 by Writer

The High Court will on Monday be asked to grant a temporary release to Daniel “Baby Skello” Wharton who was refused bail and remanded on a charge of blasphemous libel, a spokesman for the opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) said Sunday.

PNCR spokesman Sherwood Lowe said Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd “is on the case and will be doing a bail application” on Monday.

Mr Wharton was remanded to prison on Friday by Magistrate Judy Latchman after the indictable charge was read to him. On the application of the Administration of Justice Act, he pleaded not guilty to the summary charge. He was charged with the offence because of an explicit and vulgar song concerning a Hindu Goddess.

If found guilty, he could be jailed for a maximum of one year.

At the request of the Ethnic Relations Commission, he had removed the offensive song, and publicly apologised in words and song.

The PNCR-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on Sunday said “in the interest of justice and democracy” Mr Wharton must be released now because the decision to remand him to prison is “disproportionate and threatens our basic freedoms.” That party emphasised that it does not attack anyone based on their religion. “Let us be clear. We do not condone or encourage acts or expressions that willfully offend or insult any group of Guyanese based on their religious beliefs,” that party said.

The APNU said the remand of Mr Wharton came at a time when the desperate PPP government was increasingly using repressive tactics to stifle the fundamental freedoms of expression, conscience, association, and peaceful assembly of citizens here and abroad. The PNCR cited, as examples, the use of anti-terrorism provisions to deal with common criminal offences, such as looting, attempts to silence overseas-based social media actors, continued intimidation of its political opponents at home and persistent attacks on the media.

The party said it was not impressed by the “crocodile tears” shed by Minister of Education Priya Manickchand and a few other PPP leaders over the court’s decision to remand Baby Skello. “If they were genuinely concerned, as they claimed, let them be consistent and advocate within their own government to stop its repeated violations of human and democratic rights of citizens,” the APNU said.