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St. Lucia Police Probe Death Of Prisoner While In Custody

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, December 9, 2019 (CMC) – Police said, today, investigations were continuing into the death of a 32-year-old prisoner, who had been found hanging in his cell, last Saturday, and urged people not to rush to any form of judgement on the matter.

Superintendent, George Nicholas, told a news conference that the investigations were still ongoing in the death of Shem Sinaise, who was found dead in his cell, after asking to use the bathroom.

“There will always be suspicion. We should not jump to conclusions, we should allow due process,” Nicholas said, even as family members say the death is suspicious.

“I wouldn’t want to say anything that would cloud the judgement of the investigators or skew the investigation in any particular direction. I am not going to go into whether the procedure was followed. The lead investigator has assured me, that by the end of this week, he should complete the investigation, and once that has happened, I can give a further update,” Nicholas told reporters.

Sinaise was detained at the Laborie police station, in the village on the south coast of the island, after he had been arrested in the city of Vieux Fort and charged with stealing and causing harm.

Family members said they were summoned by the police, after the body had been removed on Saturday afternoon.

While he said, he could not say when the family members were informed, Nicholas said “obviously in a matter like that, where the police need to preserve the crime scene, we wouldn’t want persons to come and contaminate it”.

“We would want, as much as possible, to have an impartial investigation, and the less interference we have with the crime scene, the better you can gather whatever evidence, to get to the bottom of the matter,” he stated.

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