Two individuals convicted guilty of high seas pirate assaults that murdered seven fishermen off the coast of the country in 2018 were given death sentences by a Guyanese court. According to police, this broke the back of a murderous organization that had preyed on fishermen for years.
In a dispute over access to excellent fishing grounds, Premnauth Persaud, 48, and Nakool Manohar, 45, were found guilty of planning an attack on a fleet of fishing boats in the vicinity of the neighboring South American nation of Suriname.
While a dozen other fishermen recovered after floating on the ocean for several days, seven people drowned.
Some of the individuals, according to the police, were reportedly tossed overboard while being bound or weighted down with boat batteries.
Others are said to have been burnt with hot motor oil or cut with machetes before being dumped into the Atlantic Ocean.
Justice Navindra Singh sentenced the men on Tuesday after a jury returned guilty verdicts, calling the attacks horrific and finding “no reason not to impose the death sentence.”
The judge stated that allowing them to be released into society at any point would be “reckless and irresponsible” on the part of the court.
As he sentenced them to death by hanging, he referred to their deeds as “gruesome, heinous, and cold-blooded.”
The men have the option of appealing the decision to the regional court of appeals as well as to Trinidad’s Caribbean Court of Justice, which serves as Guyana’s supreme court.
On Thursday, their attorney opted not to comment on their plans.
