An AS student accused of issuing bomb threats has been released

Sheneza Jafarally, the 26-year-old accused of issuing a bomb threat to the University of Guyana (AS), where she is a student, was released from the charge on Monday by Liverpool Magistrate Rushelle.
The magistrate, presiding at Sparendaam Magistrates’ Courts, upheld a no-case submission to answer made by Jaffarally Latchmie Rahamat’s lawyer.
In an invited comment, the lawyer told Guyana Times “[The prosecution] could not prove the main ingredients of the offense and the most important element; that is, they could not prove that my client had ever sent such a message. ”
The accusation against her had stated that, on February 5, 2019, at Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown, she sent, through a public telecommunications device system, for the purpose of causing AS staff and students undue anxiety, a message that she had ‘ n know it is false.
The charge was initiated in accordance with the Telecommunications Act. Initially, she had pleaded not guilty to the charge and was placed on $ 10,000 bail by the High Court.
Responding to the court ruling, Jafarally said relief: “It has caused me great psychological trauma. I haven’t been able to attend school yet. And it’s not because I’m not allowed to attend, but because I’m so scared because of the situation I was put in. I have been going to therapy for the past year. I don’t think someone else should have to go through something like this because of negligence, because of people [the Police] not researching properly. ”
According to her lawyer, the prosecution failed to provide evidence to support the details of the allegation, and to show that her client had sent any message of public concern using a public telecommunications system. The lawyer also said the prosecution led no evidence to reveal the contents of the message, for the court to consider whether it was causing public concern.
He said the prosecution also failed to prove, as prescribed by the Act, that a public telecommunications system was being used to send the message. Moreover, Rahamat expressed that the entire case had caused public embarrassment to her client.
“We’re happy it’s finally over. From the beginning, we had claimed that there was no evidence. ”
It was reported that on February 5, 2019, several threats had been sent to several online news outlets, which were promptly reported to the Police. AS had been locked up due to the bomb scare. As a result, the gates to the tertiary educational establishment were briefly locked, but reopened after the green light was given by the Police and other officers.
In the threat message, the alleged sender, ‘Jack Ryan’, stated: “I have placed 20 bombs across the University of Guyana campus, which are hidden from plain sight. Attached to this bomb is a timer that can be activated / deactivated remotely ”.
It was reported that the sender had also uploaded an image of the allegedly hand-made explosive devices and had also noted that the timer had been set for eight hours before firing.
“The bombs will be activated at exactly 15:00h, unless my requirements are met,” continued ‘Ryan’. In a subsequent message, he stated that students had to leave campus, after which he would make his calls.
However, the Police conducted an investigation after no explosives were found on campus, which resulted in Jafarally being arrested at her workplace.