TIGI Demands Independent Probe Into Allegations Against SOCU Head; Calls on President to Act

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TIGI Demands Independent Probe Into Allegations Against SOCU Head; Calls on President to Act

5 October 2026

Transparency International Guyana Inc. (TIGI) is gravely concerned by the handling to date of allegations of rape and threatening behavior involving Deputy Commissioner of Police Fazil  Karimbaksh, Head of the Special Organized Crime Unit.

The allegations are of the utmost seriousness. The accused is not an ordinary member of the Guyana Police Force. He is a Deputy Commissioner and head of a major specialized unit. The complainant is reportedly a serving, ranked police officer. In such circumstances, an investigation conducted by an undisclosed internal police team cannot simply be accepted as independent, impartial, or capable of commanding public confidence. The Police Service Commission is constitutionally responsible for disciplinary control over officers at or above the rank of Inspector, while the Commissioner of Police controls disciplinary matters below that rank.

TIGI therefore calls for an immediate, credible and independent investigation, with investigators and oversight demonstrably outside the authority, professional orbit and institutional influence of Deputy Commissioner Karimbaksh.

The Guyana Police Force has announced only that the Commissioner of Police established a team to investigate. It has not identified the composition of that team, its reporting structure, whether its members are junior to the Deputy Commissioner, the measures adopted to protect the complainant and witnesses, or the safeguards against interference—actual or perceived. Minister Oneidge Walrond has similarly said that a police team would investigate, take statements and conduct what she described as a “formal confrontation.”

Those omissions are not minor administrative details. They go to the integrity of the investigation.

No Confidence in an Opaque Internal Team

TIGI has no confidence in an unnamed police investigative unit tasked with examining allegations against one of the Force’s most senior officers while he remains in office and continues to exercise rank, influence and institutional standing.

The public is being asked to trust a process without being told who will conduct it, whether the investigators are subordinate to the accused, what independent oversight exists, or how the complainant will be protected from intimidation, retaliation or re-traumatization.

That is unacceptable.

A Deputy Commissioner cannot remain at work as though nothing has occurred while officers—who may be his juniors, colleagues or subordinates—are expected to investigate allegations against him. No credible anti-corruption, human-rights or rule-of-law framework would regard that as an adequate safeguard.

Administrative leave is not punishment. It is not a finding of guilt. It is an essential protective measure to preserve evidence, protect witnesses and complainants, prevent real or perceived interference, and protect the integrity of a process whose credibility is already in question.

Minister Walrond herself has said that Karimbaksh should be sent on administrative leave pending the investigation.  TIGI agrees—and insists that the Government now move beyond expressions of personal opinion to decisive action.

“Confrontation” Must Be Clarified

TIGI is equally alarmed by the Minister’s reference to a “formal confrontation” between the complainant and the accused.

Section 42 of Guyana’s Sexual Offences Act expressly protects complainants from being required to recount their complaint in the accused’s presence unless they wish to do so. It further restricts circumstances in which a complainant may be required to view or be in the presence of an alleged perpetrator.

The Government and the Guyana Police Force must state immediately whether any direct encounter has been proposed between the complainant and Deputy Commissioner Karimbaksh. If so, they must disclose the legal basis for it, the complainant’s fully voluntary consent, the safeguards in place, and whether she has access to independent legal and psychosocial support.

No complainant in a sexual-offence investigation should be compelled, pressured, persuaded or procedurally maneuvered into facing the person she alleges raped or threatened her.

President Must Act

The President cannot remain a spectator.

The Police Service Commission is not presently constituted, although its constitutional role includes disciplinary control over senior police officers. The Commission’s absence cannot be allowed to become a convenient excuse for executive paralysis while a Deputy Commissioner facing grave allegations continues to serve in an active operational capacity.

TIGI therefore calls on President Irfaan Ali, as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and joint services, to urgently exercise the leadership required to protect public confidence in the Guyana Police Force and the administration of justice.

The President must ensure that the constitutional process to establish a functioning Police Service Commission is completed without further delay. Public reporting has indicated that the appointment process for new constitutional commissions had been initiated after prior terms expired; that process must now be treated as urgent, not routine.

Pending that reconstitution, the President, the Commissioner of Police, the Attorney General and the Minister of Home Affairs must identify and publicly disclose the lawful administrative mechanism by which Deputy Commissioner Karimbaksh can be immediately relieved of operational duties, without prejudice to his constitutional right to due process.

The absence of the PSC is not an excuse for inaction. It is a governance failure that must be remedied, not invoked.

TIGI’s Demands

TIGI calls for the following immediate measures:

1.An independent investigation led by persons demonstrably outside the operational structure, influence and chain of command of the Guyana Police Force.

2.Immediate removal of Deputy Commissioner Karimbaksh from operational duties pending the conclusion of the investigation, without prejudging the allegations.

3.Full disclosure of the investigation’s independence safeguards, including its reporting line, external supervision and arrangements to prevent interference.

4.A clear public statement that the complainant will not be compelled to participate in any face-to-face “confrontation” with the accused.

5.Independent legal, psychosocial and protective support for the complainant, as well as safeguards for all potential witnesses.

6.Immediate preservation of potentially relevant records, including communications, duty rosters, electronic data, CCTV footage, access logs and other material.

7.An urgent timetable for the reconstitution of the Police Service Commission and public confirmation of the steps being taken to achieve it.

This matter will test whether Guyana’s institutions can investigate serious allegations against the powerful without fear, favour, opacity or delay.

Due process for the accused must be respected. But due process does not mean institutional passivity. It does not mean keeping a senior officer in place while junior officers investigate him behind a veil of secrecy. And it does not mean treating the complainant’s statutory protections as a matter of convenience.

The country deserves a process that is independent in fact, credible in appearance and accountable to the public. Anything less will deepen the already serious crisis of confidence in the Guyana Police Force.

ENDS