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Politics
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Guyana Vows Legal Action After Shooting Involving Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed

By
Diligence Posts Editorial Team

The Government of Guyana has said it will apply the full force of the law after an incident late on Tuesday night in which Azruddin Mohamed, the Opposition Leader, was arrested in the Kitty area of Georgetown. The account below is drawn entirely from a Government statement. No court has yet examined those claims, and no independent account of the shooting has been published.

According to the statement, Mr Mohamed and two other men were filming the Barr Street home of Senior Superintendent Prem Narine at about midnight from a dark car with heavily tinted windows. Gunshots were said to have come from the vehicle, and spent shells were reported to have been found near the house. Mr Narine is said to have returned fire with his service handgun. Officers chased the car, stopped it and arrested all three occupants. Mr Mohamed was found in the back seat, and an unlicensed firearm was recovered. The statement says Mr Mohamed admitted to filming the property.No statement from Mr Mohamed has been published.

Mr Narine leads the police Special Branch. He has been giving evidence for the prosecution in the extradition proceedings against Mr Mohamed and his father, Nazar Mohamed, at the Georgetown Magistrates' Court. Earlier this autumn he testified that he considers Mr Mohamed a threat to national security. He also told the magistrate that he feared for his life and his family's safety after posts appeared on Facebook. The Government statement says those posts came from Mr Mohamed's page and included photographs of Mr Narine's minor son. The Mohamed family has denied that the case is politically motivated.

Mr Mohamed and his father face an 11-count US indictment alleging fraud, money laundering and related offences. They were arrested in October 2025 on a US request. The US Treasury had sanctioned them in 2024 over alleged gold smuggling and tax evasion. Mr Mohamed has said throughout that he is innocent and that he is being persecuted for entering politics. His party, We Invest in Nationhood, won 16 of 65 seats in the September 2025 election, which made him Opposition Leader.

The statement also sets out a wider legal argument. It asserts that witnesses have been killed in murder investigations that implicate Mr Mohamed, and that Tuesday's incident threatens the safety of witnesses in Guyana and the integrity of any later trial in the United States. These are allegations made by the Government. Mr Mohamed has denied any links to killings. Reports from July said police had been questioning former employees of his businesses about a murder case, and the family has alleged that those employees were coerced.

The Government said the State is committed to protecting witnesses and that investigations are continuing. It added that the US Department of Justice is being kept informed.

What happens next depends on the police. Mr Mohamed and the two other men could be charged and brought before a court, though the statement does not say when. The extradition hearing at the Georgetown Magistrates' Court is also continuing, and Mr Narine's evidence forms part of it. The response of Mr Mohamed's lawyers and party will be central to how the claims are judged. Their account had not been published at the time of writing, and a request for comment has been made.

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