More than a week after High Court Judge Gino Persaud was prevented from travelling because his United States visa was under review, neither he nor US authorities have said why. Justice Persaud was part of a delegation of Guyanese judicial officers due to attend the Commonwealth Magistrates' and Judges' Association annual conference in Kingston, Jamaica, which ran from September 20 to 24. The itinerary required a transit through Miami. He was told during airline check-in that he could not proceed because of the status of his visa. The judge has made no public statement on the matter.

Justice Courtney Abel, a former Belize High Court judge and head of the University of Guyana's Department of Law, addressed the conference in Jamaica. He suggested that the action taken against Justice Persaud might have resulted from US displeasure with the judge's ruling in the Lamborghini tax case involving Azruddin Mohamed, and said it raised questions about judicial independence. "A sanction need not announce its name," he told the gathering. He asked at what point an unexplained exercise of foreign executive power affecting a judge, following politically sensitive decisions, becomes a public issue of judicial independence.

Justice Abel said he could not substantiate the link. He acknowledged that there is no proof and that suspicion is not evidence, and said he relied instead on chronology, context and concern. He pointed to US sanctions on the Mohamed family and to extradition proceedings involving Mr Mohamed. Neither Justice Persaud nor the US authorities have given any reason for the review. The Guyana Chronicle said its attempts to obtain clarification from Justice Abel were unsuccessful.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall rejected suggestions that the Government might be responsible. He said it has no influence over whom the United States permits to enter its territory.

US Ambassador to Guyana Nicole Theriot said the embassy had no role in the case and was not aware that Justice Persaud's visa was under review when he was stopped from boarding. She said such actions are processed and decided in Washington, DC, and that consular sections on the ground are often not told until a final determination has been made. Asked why a visa might be placed under review, she said it happens when US authorities receive information about the holder that leads them to reconsider whether that person remains eligible. A review, on her description, is a reconsideration of eligibility and not a finding of wrongdoing.

The Lamborghini case is the background to Justice Abel's remarks. It involved a dispute between Mr Mohamed and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA). According to the Guyana Chronicle, Justice Persaud declined to accept evidence supplied by US authorities under the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act. The newspaper describes that evidence as crucial to the GRA's case and says it showed falsification of documents by Mr Mohamed in an effort to defraud the State of millions of dollars in taxes. It also reports that the judge rejected evidence from the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry and ruled against the GRA on November 14, 2025. These characterisations are the newspaper's. Justice Persaud has not commented on them, and the judgment itself is not quoted in its report.

Several questions remain open. The information that prompted the review has not been disclosed. There is no confirmed link between the review and the Lamborghini ruling, and the only suggestion of one has come from Justice Abel, who offered no evidence for it. 

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