{"id":32629,"date":"2026-10-20T14:05:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T18:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=32629"},"modified":"2026-10-20T14:05:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T18:05:48","slug":"president-ali-calls-for-review-of-death-penalty-following-killing-of-six-year-old-berbice-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/president-ali-calls-for-review-of-death-penalty-following-killing-of-six-year-old-berbice-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"President Ali calls for review of death penalty following killing of six-year-old Berbice boy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Dr. Irfaan Ali has signalled his full support for reconsidering the use of the death penalty for particularly heinous crimes, following the shocking death of six-year-old Orlando Jaikarran of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President has instructed Attorney General Anil Nandlall to examine the legal implications of capital punishment and other measures aimed at addressing serious crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to News Room journalist Neil Marks on Tuesday, President Ali described the child’s killing as \u201catrocious\u201d and argued that the severity of certain offences demands the strongest possible response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe death penalty is something that we have to look at if we want to really send a strong signal,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When pressed on whether he fully supported capital punishment as that signal, Ali responded: \u201c100%.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President acknowledged the human rights considerations surrounding the death penalty but maintained that crimes of an exceptionally disturbing nature warrant serious examination of the penalties available under the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stressed, however, that the judicial process must be allowed to take its course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His comments followed the discovery of Orlando’s body in a canal at Bath Settlement early Tuesday morning, bringing a tragic end to the search for the child, who had been reported missing since October 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boy’s father, Bharrat Jaikarran, remains in police custody after reportedly admitting to investigators that he killed his son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Region Five Commander, Senior Superintendent Lonsdale Whithrite, confirmed to News Room that information provided by the father led investigators to the child’s body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A post-mortem examination is expected to determine the cause of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, President Ali said the public’s reaction to the tragedy underscored the need for a serious national examination of punishment for particularly grave offences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although capital punishment remains part of Guyana’s legal framework, the country has not carried out an execution since August 1997, when two convicted murderers were hanged at the Georgetown Prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President’s latest position has renewed attention on the longstanding debate over capital punishment, its application and the legal and human rights considerations surrounding its enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: News Room, October 20, 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n

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President Dr. Irfaan Ali has signalled his full support for reconsidering the use of the death penalty for particularly heinous crimes, following the shocking death of six-year-old Orlando Jaikarran of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[467,350],"tags":[488,448,405],"class_list":["post-32629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-security","category-news","tag-488","tag-ncn","tag-ncn-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32630,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32629\/revisions\/32630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}