Murder accused freed after no-case submission upheld

57-year-old Sarjoo Matadin, one of the four men charged with the murder of overseas-based businessman Mohamed “Raymond” Haniff, was freed on Monday after Magistrate Peter Hugh upheld the no-case submission made on his behalf by Senior Counsel Murseline Bacchus.

Sarjou Matadin

When the Preliminary Inquiry (PI) into the matter continued on Monday at the Fort Wellington Magistrate’s Court, Magistrate Hugh ruled on the no-case submission which was made at an earlier hearing.

Consequent to that ruling, Matadin of Bath, West Coast Berbice (WCB) was discharged.

Twenty-nine-year-old Royston Dowden of Waterloo, Bath; 50-year-old Devon McCalmon of No. 22 Village and 21-year-old Ivan Lindo of Waterloo, Bath are the other murder accused.

Haniff, also known as ‘Raymond,’ 47, of Bath, was beaten with an iron bar and chopped multiple times in his head with a cutlass in the late hours of September 12, 2018.

He was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital, after which he was transferred to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital, where he died the following morning. 

An autopsy showed that Haniff died as a result of multiple incised wounds to the head.