A New York Police Division (NYPD) report has confirmed vehement denial by Brooklyn-based Guyanese political activist Rickford Burke that he was not served final month with a Guyana Police-issued court docket summons on prices associated to extortion, sedition and inciting public terror.
A replica of the NYPD report, made obtainable to Caribbean Life on Tuesday, states that about 10:00 a.m. on Dec. 16, 2023, an unknown “Black male, approx. 6ft 2 in, approx. 200 lbs. (and) unk (unknown) white male carrying eye glasses, curly hair, tried handy him (Burke) paperwork paperwork.
“He refused to take them and continued to stroll away,” the report provides. “CV (complainant Burke) additionally states unk white male which (with) what seemed to be the deal with of a black rusted firearm.”
However, in an announcement on Dec. 23, 2023, captioned “Rickford Burke lied”, the Guyana Police Pressure (GPF) mentioned that it “continues to speak with the excessive command of the New York Police Division in relation to Needed Man, Rickford Burke.
“Current communication with the NYPD confirms that Burke made no report back to the NYPD towards a GPF Officer and the method server, who served him sure authorized paperwork at his premises in New York, though he continues to allege publicly that he made such stories to the NYPD,” the assertion mentioned.
“The GPF needs to remind the general public that submitting a false report back to legislation enforcement officers, whether or not native or abroad, constitutes a severe felony offence, and any such report filed by Burke will end in felony prices and prosecution,” the assertion added. “The GPF maintains that there was no illegality in reference to or in relation to the service of authorized paperwork upon Rickford Burke. Within the circumstances, his rantings represent a tissue of lies and libel accentuated by malice and mischief.
“On this context, due to this fact, the GPF will proceed to behave inside the confines of the legislation and be sure that the suitable authorized motion is taken towards Burke for these falsehoods and malicious assaults perpetrated towards its ranks,” the assertion continued.
However Burke – a former advisor to the late Guyana President Desmond Hoyte and president of the Brooklyn-based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) – by way of a spokesman, Richard Millington, an lawyer, who serves as CGID’s director of communications, informed Caribbean Life on Tuesday that the NYPD report “proves to the Caribbean area what CGID has been saying for years.
“The Guyana Police Pressure is led by dishonest individuals, and nothing they mentioned have to be believed,” Millington mentioned. “They’re devious.
“They’re political hacks who’re doing the soiled work of Bharrat Jagdeo (Guyana Vice President),” he alleged. “The area ought to now recognize what Guyanese face. Jagdeo and the Guyana Police management are tyrants, who’re enemies of the individuals.
“Nonetheless, we in CGID will not be afraid to tyrants,” Millington added. “We’ll take these liars head on and expose them.”
The Guyana Police mentioned in an announcement that Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rodwell Sarrabo, on Dec. 16, met with Mark Wesserman, a course of server, based mostly within the US, and that they served each defendant summons on Burke at his house tackle on Maple Avenue in Brooklyn.
The Guyana Police mentioned each defendant summons, for Burke to look in court docket in Guyana in March 2024, have been “learn to Rickford Burke, and he mentioned he understood.”
However Burke, by way of Millington, flatly denied the allegation.
“The Guyana Police Pressure is engaged in egregious lies, severe unlawful conduct and fraudulent actions,” Millington informed Caribbean Life. “Mr. Burke was by no means served with a doc and didn’t signal for or settle for a doc. The gunmen left items of paper of Mr. Burke’s steps, which have been retrieved and brought as proof by the NYPD
“The Guyana Police Pressure and Courts of Guyana haven’t any jurisdiction to control and police speech of Guyanese in America or to serve felony prices on anybody within the US,” he added.
The Guyana Police mentioned that Burke is needed in Guyana on a number of offences, together with “the joy of hostility or ill-will on the grounds of race, beneath the Racial Hostility Act, sedition beneath the Cyber Crime Act, use of a pc system to coerce and intimidate an individual, beneath the Cyber Crime Act, in addition to seditious libel opposite to widespread legislation”.
Moreover, the Guyana Police assertion mentioned that Burke is needed on “seditious libel beneath the peace beneath the Abstract Jurisdiction Offences Act and inciting public terror beneath the Felony Regulation Offences Act”.
Millington mentioned Burke, who was born in Guyana and has been dwelling within the US since 1992, “stays dedicated to ending political corruption and racism in Guyana,” and that “from his Brooklyn studios, Mr. Burke publishes a twice-weekly information and opinion speak present on Fb and YouTube titled, ‘Dialog with Rickford Burke,’ protesting what he believes to be corruption inside the present PPP Authorities of Guyana and racist insurance policies and practices.”
“The PPP Authorities is just not glad,” mentioned the lawyer, stating that on Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023, at about 10:55 a.m., as Burke was departing his residence for church, accompanied by a colleague, “Sarabos and Wasserman, each armed with pistols, rushed into Mr. Burke’s fenced yard, and straight up the steps to the entrance door, the place they obstructed his departure from the residence. Sarabo was videotaping whereas brandishing a firearm.
“Wasserman shouted, ‘are you Rickford Burke?’ and tried to shove unidentified papers in his face,” Millington added. “Mr. Burke requested that they depart his property, ignored Wasserman, locked the doorways to his house, descended the steps, exited his yard, and left for church in a ready car.
“The 2 Guyana brokers remained within the yard, and have been later noticed rifling by way of paperwork and correspondence in Mr. Burke’s mailbox,” he continued, stating that “tampering with mail is a federal crime in the USA.”
Millington mentioned the matter was reported to the US Postal Police, and that Burke additionally contacted the NYPD.
The CGID’s communications director mentioned the NYPD “retrieved a doc the Guyana brokers left” on Burke’s stairs, and that “officers from the NYPD decided that the lads have been brokers of the PPP Authorities of Guyana.”
Millington mentioned “the NYPD instantly referred to as within the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), and that “the FBI presently is investigating whether or not the Authorities of Guyana has engaged in a transnational effort to repress speech utilizing felony prices.”
He mentioned the NYPD additionally has “engaged” the US Joint Terrorism Job Pressure (JTTF).
The Guyana Police mentioned that, on Sept. 29, 2022, it had issued a “Needed Bulletin for Rickford Burke in relation to the offence of Conspiracy to Commit a Felony, Opposite to Part 33 of the Felony Regulation (Offences) Act…almost about the publication of defamatory libel with a purpose to extort cash from Afras Mohammed”.
The Guyana Police assertion additionally mentioned that, on Aug. 18, 2023, two prices have been filed on the Vigilance Justice of the Peace’s Court docket in Guyana towards Burke in relation to the offences. It mentioned Burke didn’t present up in court docket.
“As such, the Justice of the Peace ordered that the ‘defendant summons’ be ready and served on Rickford Burke to attend the Vigilance Justice of the Peace’s court docket on the 28th day of March 2024,” the Guyana Police assertion mentioned.
“As such, pursuant to the order of the Court docket, two defendant summons have been subsequently ready and, on the 13th day of December, 2023, an Officer of the Guyana Police Pressure, ASP Rodwell Sarabo, left Guyana and travelled to the USA of America with each defendant summons in his possession,” the assertion added.
Millington confirmed to Caribbean Life on Tuesday that Burke has been interviewed by “US federal brokers who’re investigating the incident” on Burke’s Brooklyn premises.
