Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 09, 2019 News
Weeks after being jailed for tendering forged passports, a Cuban couple has been granted bail by the High Court pending an appeal.
Yesterday, the application for bail pending appeal was granted by Justice Navindra Singh.
He placed 38-year-old Dr. Alexey Vazquez and wife, Yuliet Sanchez, on $50,000 bail each.
The case, after being highlighted in the media last month, generated sympathy for the couple.
Gold trader, Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed, of Mohamed’s Trading on Lombard Street, was one who said he wanted to do something.
Their lawyer in the appeal process is Latchmie Rahamat.
In the application for bail pending the appeal, Mr. Mohamed is listed as a friend of the couple.
It was stated that the couple do not speak English and that a police sergeant was sworn in without any evidence being taken as to her qualifications and competence as an interpreter.
Mohamed said that the two had no lawyer and were told to plead guilty and they would be sent home.
It was stated that the couple did not know that by pleading guilty that they would be jailed.
According to the court documents, based on the explanations of the couple, they should not have been sentenced, as those explanations amounted to not guilty pleas.
In fact, nowhere did the couple acknowledge that the passports were false.
The documents said that Vazquez is a Doctor of Urology and he and his wife have three children.
The court documents also said that Mohamed was “touched” by the reported stories of the couple and is willing to provide a home while they are on bail pending the appeal.
The businessman also committed to help the couple apply for work permits so they could be employed during the appeal.
On February 14, the couple appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, and pleaded guilty to charges. They were sentenced to 12 months each.
The charge against them stated that on February 13, 2019, at Moleson Creek, Berbice, with intent to defraud, they uttered to an immigration official, two forged Republic of Cuba passports, purporting to show that they were issued by the Immigration Authority.
According to the facts presented by Police Prosecutor, Gordon Mansfield, the couple came to Guyana on February 11, via the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA).
On February 13, while they were at Moleson Creek attempting to cross over to Suriname, they were asked by an immigration officer to present their passports for examination.
The officer upon examining the passports observed that they were forged. The court heard that the Cubans were then arrested and taken to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) where they told officers that they wanted to travel the world.
They further disclosed that they paid a lawyer US$5,000 and he acquired the passports for them.
The couple spoke through an interpreter and told the court that they came to Guyana to buy clothing for their children.
The Magistrate after considering the couple’s early guilty plea and the fact that they did not waste the court’s time, sentenced them each to 12 months’ imprisonment.
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