Gya: Too much handwringing to touch Reeaz Khan with a ten-foot pole

Police from the Criminal Investigation Department yesterday visited the home of the 13-year-old girl at the centre of a controversy with businessman, Reeaz Khan and took a full statement from her mother.

Bibi Shameeza Hamid later told Stabroek News that when she had reported the alleged threat issued to her son by Khan at the Wales Police Station last Thursday, two officers from that station had visited her sister's home and had spoken to the child. However, this is the first time officers from Georgetown have visited her since the saga began. She said the officers yesterday copied information from her child's birth certificate. Khan has been accused of having sexual relations with the 13-year-old and refusing to return her to her mother. Khan has declined to speak to Stabroek News on the case.

Meanwhile it is expected that Hamid's attorney will file proceedings seeking to have the court cite Khan for contempt after he allegedly flouted the High Court order requiring him to stay away from the teen.
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Justice Roy had also instructed that Khan release the teenager into the joint custody of her mother and maternal aunt [Hamid's sister] and further that Khan refrain from having any form of contact with the 13-year-old.

The child fled from her aunt's home last Saturday night into a vehicle connected to Khan, according to relatives, but Khan has since claimed to be unaware of the teenager's whereabouts.
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Khan has since filed a petition in an attempt to obtain legal authority to marry the child but Stabroek News has been reliably informed that corresponding documents are yet to be served on Hamid or her attorney. He has not denied indulging in sexual relations with the child.
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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), meanwhile, concurs with the stipulation contained in the mandate of the National Convention on the Rights of the Child (NCRC) denoting that the legal age for consent to sexual relations and marriage is 18 years.

Ambassador Lebohang Moleko, who is the president of UNICEF's Executive Board, indicated yesterday that his organisation's position is concurrent with the NCRC proviso in response to a question put to him by the media in relation to the Khan saga.
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The legislation governing the issue of consent in Guyana, according to the Criminal Law Offences Act indicate that a man who indulges in sexual relations with a girl aged 12 years and under can be charged with carnal knowledge.
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Another Central Executive Member, Deryck Bernard, condemned Khan's reported flouting of the court order.

Raphael Trotman, in flaying Khan's involvement with the 13-year-old, said last year the government had rushed a number of pieces of legislation through the National Assembly, some dealing with kidnapping. Trotman said the whole country was now awaiting the full application of the laws.

The Guyana Islamic Trust (GIT), in a press release yesterday, said Islam completely prohibits sexual relationships outside of wedlock and any form of interaction that is likely to cause sexual relationships to develop under such circumstances.
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However, the organisation condemned what it referred to as "...the sensationalising of the matter by the news media and any attempt to use this incident to portray Muslims in a negative light."
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Khan in other sections of the media had reported that he took the child to Barbados with the consent of her mother. However, Hamid said the trip occurred while she was in hospital after ingesting poison. The woman stated that she had chosen to end her life as she was not getting any help in the matter. She has now pledged to continue to fight Khan all the way in light of the support she has received adding that she would not allow the man to marry her daughter once she can help it.

Too much drama again. It looks like in Guyana any female over the age of 12 is fair game. The amazing thing is that everybody's blabbing, and Reeaz Khan is walking free and bouncing the hell out of his mattress springs at night. The usual suspects are claiming they're being protrayed in a bad light; did anybody tell Reeaz Khan, a grown man old enough to be the 13-year old's father or possibly grandfather, to kidnap the child and have sex with her? So, if anybody's making Muslims look bad, then it's the Muslim Reeaz Khan. Nobody else. So, the cops are doing nothing, and the courts are thinking about contempt -- both of which prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that in Guyana the law is definitely an ass.