No one interviewed in Paria diving probe yet
Written by Newsday Reporter on August 8, 2024
NO one has been interviewed to date in the police investigation into the Paria diving tragedy.
This was the information Newsday received on August 8 from some of the people and entities connected to the tragedy.
On February 25, 2022, Land Marine Construction Services (LMCS) divers Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Christopher Boodram were doing maintenance work on a 30-inch underwater pipeline belonging to Paria when they were sucked into it.
Only Boodram survived.
In a statement on July 30, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard said he had considered the Paria Commission of Enquiry (CoE) report into the tragedy.
“I have identified the only possible non-regulatory criminal offence which could have been committed as being manslaughter by gross negligence,” Gaspard said.
He added, “Unlike in the UK, there has been no statutory intervention in Trinidad and Tobago to create an offence known as corporate manslaughter.”
After studying the CoE report, Gaspard met with Commissioner of Police Erla Harewood-Christopher on May 8. He wrote to the top cop two days later.
Gaspard advised her that police “should commence a criminal investigation, so as to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to charge any individual or corporate entity with manslaughter by gross negligence.
“An investigation is required as the commission’s report does not itself constitute evidence, and it is materially deficient in proving all of the elements of the offence to be investigated.”
The DPP’s statement added that Harewood-Christopher told him she had appointed an officer to lead the investigation.
Since that statement was issued, there is no evidence that interviews were conducted by police with any person or entity connected to the tragedy.
Boodram said, “No. I have not been contacted.”
Vanessa Kussie, Nagassar’s widow, said the same thing.
“No. No police (officer) has called me as yet pertaining (to the) Paria investigation.”
Boodram and Kussie both welcomed the announcement of the police probe.
Attorney Prakash Ramadhar, legal counsel for the Kurban family and Henry’s daughter, confirmed that police have not interviewed either of his clients to date.
Sources close to Paria and LMCS also said police have not interviewed any of their personnel or sought information from them in relation to their investigation.
A Paria source said, “No, not since the DPP’s statement.”
An LMCS source said, “Not to my knowledge. Nothing.”
Harewood-Christopher and other senior officers were unavailable for comment.
There was also no comment from Gaspard with respect to the status of the investigation
A newspaper report on August 8 claimed that police were close to completing the investigation.
The report also claimed police were unable to give any firm time line as to when that would happen.
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