By Travis Chase | HGP Nightly News |
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — The Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) is demanding full institutional transparency, immediate executive accountability, and unhindered criminal proceedings following grave sexual assault and death threat allegations leveled against Deputy Commissioner of Police and Head of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), Fizal Karimbaksh.
In a strongly worded national statement, the political organization insisted that senior state actors must not be insulated from justice, declaring: “There is no rank, no title and no political connection that entitles any man to prey upon the women who work beneath him.”
The party’s intervention follows revelations that a serving female Police Inspector tendered an official sworn statement to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) detailing multiple rapes and repeated death threats by Karimbaksh, after personally disclosing the alleged abuse to Minister of Home Affairs Oneidge Walrond on September 20, 2026.
Pattern of Systemic Misconduct: The Unresolved Academy Probe
Forward Guyana underscored that the allegations against the SOCU Head cannot be treated as an isolated incident, placing them squarely within a broader, documented culture of unresolved sexual misconduct within the police apparatus:
- The January Academy Investigation: The party highlighted a formal announcement made in January by the Ministry of Home Affairs directing the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation, abuse of authority, and systemic misconduct at the Guyana Police Force Academy.
- Parliamentary Stonewalling: During consideration of the 2026 National Budget Estimates in February, Minister Walrond confirmed that the GPF Academy probe had officially commenced. However, when follow-up questions were tabled seeking a completion date and public delivery of the findings, Speaker of the National Assembly Manzoor Nadir disallowed the inquiry, leaving the outcome concealed from public view.
The 2020 McBean Report Resurfaces: A Prima Facie Case Unprosecuted
Forward Guyana also resurrected the critical findings of a 2020 internal probe into sexual harassment complaints filed by two female recruits at the Felix Austin Police College (FAPC) against Karimbaksh:
- The Findings of Simon McBean: According to the party, an investigative report completed by then Assistant Commissioner Simon McBean and submitted directly to the Police Service Commission (PSC) concluded that nothing presented during the inquiry disproved or discredited the trainees’ testimonies.
- Evidence for Criminal Charges: The McBean report determined that sufficient prima facie evidence existed to support a criminal charge of sexual harassment under the Prevention of Discrimination Act.
- Zero Prosecutorial Follow-Through: Despite those explicit investigative determinations, Karimbaksh was never criminally charged, suspended, or demoted, and was subsequently elevated to lead the state’s premier financial crimes unit.
‘No Woman Should Choose Between Safety and Career’
Demanding an immediate end to official silence, Forward Guyana urged the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and independent oversight bodies to intervene, guaranteeing protection for subordinate female ranks:
“No woman in this country should ever be made to choose between her safety and her job, and no woman should be punished for refusing,” the movement stated.
The organization insisted that the criminal inquiry into Karimbaksh “must go wherever the evidence leads,” demanding that formal criminal indictments follow swiftly if supported by the evidentiary threshold:
“The women who have come forward deserve justice, and they deserve it without further delay.”
