Guyanese drug convicts head home

The Court of Appeal today varied the sentences of two Guyanese drug convicts and sentenced them to time served.

The order handed down by Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson saw Lemme Michael Campbell and Rohan Shastri Rambarran walking out of the Whitepark Road, Supreme Court complex, accompanied by three immigration officials and an official from the Guyana Consulate this afternoon.

The two men were convicted in June 2009, along with four others, for importation, possession and trafficking of 91.3 kilos of cannabis and 119.4 kilos of cocaine which were contained in logs on November 29, 2005 .

They were sentenced in December 2009 – Rabarran to 25 years for trafficking cannabis and 30 years for trafficking cocaine; while Campbell received 25 years for trafficking cocaine and 20 years for cannabis trafficking. Those sentences were being served concurrently.

Their attorneys appealed the convictions and sentences back in 2010 and the matter was heard in 2014. That 94-page decision was handed down today even though the island’s final court, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), had ordered back in 2016 that appeal decisions be expedited.

The duo’s four co-accused have already served their sentences and released.

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