Iranian Scholar Abducted in Guyana Found Dead

Tehran Times ^ | May 8, 2004 | Reuters

[LurkedLongEnough]

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Reuters) -- An Iranian scholar who was abducted in Guyana last month in a case that baffled local police has been found dead with gunshot wounds to the head, police said on Wednesday.

The body of Mohammad Hassan Ebrahimi, director of Guyana's International Islamic College for Advanced Studies, was discovered by local people late on Tuesday 45 miles (70 km) south of the capital, Georgetown.

Ebrahimi, a well-known member of Guyana's Muslim community, was seized by two gunmen on April 2 in Georgetown as he left the college compound.

Police spokesman John Sauers said the partly decomposed body of the slain academic, with the mouth taped and hands and feet bound was found in a shallow grave.

"There were two gunshot wounds to the head," he said.

A colleague of Ebrahimi, Abdul Kadir, identified the corpse which was found in bushes along a track near the Linden-Soesdyke highway south of Georgetown. The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination.

Guyana police were baffled by the abduction because although kidnappings are frequent in the South American country, Ebrahimi's captors did not contact his family and made no ransom demand.

Four Iranian police detectives and Iran's ambassador to Guyana, Ahmad Sobhani, who is based in Venezuela, went to Georgetown last week to assist local authorities.

Muslims form a significant part of Guyana's multiracial population, although the Christian and Hindu communities are larger.

[blackdog]

Not that it's related but the coincidence is strange. A couple stories down the page is a bit about a pair of guys from Georgetown, who just arrived @JFK airport, only one of them died of unknown causes on the flight to the US.

[csvset]

Iran voices concern over kidnapping of cleric

Monday, April 12th 2004

Mohammad Hassan Ebrahimi Iran's Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharrazi, has expressed concern about the abduction of Iranian cleric, Mohammad Hassan Ebrahimi, two Fridays ago by armed men who shot and injured his colleague in the process. A report carried yesterday by the Agence France Presse said that Kharrazi discussed the issue in a recent telephone conversation with his Guyanese counterpart. "We are worried about the kidnapping of an Iranian religious scholar and researcher in Guyana. We want the necessary action to be taken to release him as soon as possible and for the abductors to be prosecuted," the AFP quoted the minister as saying in the Iranian capital Tehran. A team of policemen, on Thursday morning, raided and interrogated staff members of the ISA Islamic School in East Street, Georgetown, in what proved to be a futile search for the abducted Iranian. Officials of the Guyana Islamic Trust (GIT) have since condemned the move and threatened legal action while denying any insinuations of conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Guyana. The GIT also pleaded for Ebrahimi to be released and reunited with his wife, Shahnaz, who is eight months pregnant. Shahnaz has also criticised the police raid on the ISA Islamic School. "It is wrong. It is nonsense," she told Stabroek News yesterday. There have been no ransom demands for Ebrahimi's return or any other form of contact from his abductors, a fact that Shahnaz finds deeply frustrating. "I try [to be okay]. I cannot do anything but pray and pray," she said, adding that the Iranian Ambassador to Venezuela recently visited her to inquire of her welfare and the circumstances surrounding the abduction among other issues. Ebrahimi, 35, is the Director of the International Islamic College for Advanced Studies located at 42 United Nations Place, Brickdam, where the abduction occurred. Raymond Halley, 51, is the IICAS Administrator who was shot and injured when he attempted to flee the scene. Local Shia leader, Sheikh Salim Ibn Abdul Kadir, had told Stabroek News that Halley was unable to provide any substantial details on the abductors. The police anti-kidnapping squad has been involved in the search for the cleric.

[steveyp]

Shame his head was still attached.

[blackdog]

Just what do they teach at an advanced college of Islamic studies? Obviously not Sharp Knife Anatomy 101? I think I'd pass on Dull Knife Execution 101.

Maybe "Glory of Muhammed Misunderstood", Was Muhammed a third century warlord misunderstood or was he really a violence and death worshiping lunatic..........

It's time to retool our sensativities and accept that Islam should move into a civilized, technical, women's rights, tolerant seat at the world table or be stomped out like a bad grass fire.

[csvset]

Just what do they teach at an advanced college of Islamic studies?

I was wondering the same thing. Was he preaching jihad or not ? I wonder who did him in?

[blackdog]

Obviously, Islamic Advanced Studies Universities don't have much of a tenure policy. The retirement package is a bit random about when it kicks in as well.

[csvset]

Islamic school to reopen despite death of 'shepherd'

Sunday, May 30th 2004

Administrators plan to reopen the International Islamic College for Advanced Studies, despite being haunted by the brutal murder of its director Mohammad Hassan Ebrahimi, a man remembered as a shepherd helping lost sheep. "We are going to start classes by the August holidays... once we get the system organised," interim director Sheikh Salim Ibn Abdul Kadir says. He is responsible for the institution until the Iranian organisation which runs the college sends a new director. Kadir, who is now moving back and forth between the college and his own Linden-based Islamic Information Centre, says that notices for enrolment should be published shortly. Ebrahimi is fondly remembered by close associates who worked with him at the school, where he managed to forge a close bond with the students. "I was like a sheep without a shepherd," says Brother Haroon, who was in Berbice recruiting more students from the school when news came of the director's abduction. He says being a member of a minority Shia community, he was hard-pressed to find a place where he could freely associate until the sheik brought him to the college. Haroon, says the sheik was interested in helping young people and it was for this reason that he was dispatched to Berbice, where he was to recruit 40 students. He says they were looking for young people who were unemployed, who would be given skills training, housing and clothing. Ebrahimi was particular about standards and was searching for a building to house the students around the time of his abduction. "That man was something else... He was a father... a brother... he was a rare individual," Haroon says. Close associate, Brother Usamah says Ebrahimi was actively involved in teaching at the college, where a small group of students was learning about Islam, the Arabic language and computer science. Ebrahimi also had plans to introduce a sewing class at the college and had placed advertisements in the newspaper. The class was made up of about 15 students who began studying at the college at the start of the year. A considerable number of them were Amerindian, according to Usamah, who says the sheik was trying to give them opportunities they would not normally have. "The sheik's work was not limited to a particular people... At the time of his abduction each and everyone of them was on keyboards doing computer work." They were his first batch of students and many were overcome by emotion when they heard of his abduction. "The students came on the Monday after... everyone of them cried bitterly, including a teacher. They cried bitterly," says Usamah. Local police appear to be no closer to solving the case than they were two months ago, when the Iranian cleric was abducted in front of the college on April 2. He had returned to the college that night after an official of the institution telephoned him to say there was a leak in the building. But nothing was found and while he and the college's administrator Raymond Halley were about to drive away they were attacked by the gunmen who shot at them. They were ordered out of the vehicle and Halley was shot when he tried to run away. Ebrahimi was dragged from the vehicle and bundled into the waiting AE 192 Toyota Carina of the gunmen, who sped away. There was never any ransom demand, fuelling further suspicion about the abduction. Ebrahimi's partly decomposed body was found off the Linden-Soesdyke Highway one month later. He was shot twice in the head. Prior to the publication of this story Stabroek News sought answers to many unanswered questions about the investigation but there has been no response from the authorities. It is unclear how much time elapsed before the police responded and what was recovered at the scene of the abduction. The kidnappers were seen by witnesses, but police have not released descriptions to solicit public assistance. Police have also not said if any forensic evidence was retrieved from the site where the body was recovered. Police have been silent on possible motives for the kidnapping, though at one stage one of the angles they were exploring was a possible conflict between local Sunni and Shia Muslims. This is one of the reasons that reportedly led to the search of the ISA Islamic School, a development which drew outrage from the local Muslim community. The Guyana Islamic Trust (GIT), which administers the school, also dismissed insinuations that there was any conflict. Iranian investigators were dispatched to Guyana, though it is still not known whether they made any progress.

[livius]

And isn't this interesting:

Iran's ambassador to Guyana, Ahmad Sobhani, who is based in Venezuela...

[Recovering Hermit]

This guy looks entirely too happy to be a "radical muslim".

That's probably why he's dead.

[LurkedLongEnough]

CIA Factbook - Guyana ... Illicit drugs: transshipment point for narcotics from South America - primarily Venezuela... to US & Europe

[McGavin999]

Something really stinks here. A 35 year old heading up "Advanced Islamic Studies"? I think it's more likely an Iranian Shiia terrorist group came up against a Sunni terrorist group and this is the results.

[piasa]

fyi

[piasa]

Not that it's related but the coincidence is strange. A couple stories down the page is a bit about a pair of guys from Georgetown, who just arrived @JFK airport, only one of them died of unknown causes on the flight to the US.

Jamaican Man Dies On Flight From Guyana To New York

[piasa]

Another man is identified as Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, who has given Saudi Arabia as his birthplace and has given his age as 28. According to the FBI, "El Shukrijumah occasionally wears a beard. He has a pronounced nose and is asthmatic. El Shukrijumah speaks English and carries a Guyanese passport, but may attempt to enter the U.S. with a Saudi, Canadian, or Trinidadian passport."

From 2003 article :
FBI Searching For 4 Middle Eastern Men - Men Wanted For Questioning On Terrorist Matters

[piasa]

Last week [mid to late May 2004], a man in Guyana, George Bacchus, said US Embassy security officials had shown him a photo of El Shukrijumah this year.
Bacchus said he was “90 per cent” sure he had seen the man in a money exchange office in Georgetown as recently as December.
Bacchus has been at the centre of controversy in Guyana, after accusing the country’s interior minister of directing a hit squad that killed his brother.
This month, president Bharrat Jagdeo appointed an independent commission to investigate.
El Shukrijumah’s relatives in Guyana refused to comment on Wednesday. One female relative who refused to give her name said, “We don’t know where he is and we can’t say anything.”

From Terror suspect has close links to Caribbean; FBI keeps tabs on Trini friends

[piasa]

Police searching for 'next Mohammed Atta- Central America on alert for FBI 'top 5' terror suspect [with ties to Guyana]

[piasa]

From : [Nov 1, 2004] Former Guyana Chief Judge Is Dead

HBN, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Mon. Nov. 1: Guyana’s judicial circle are mourning the loss of former Chief Justice, Rudolph Harper, who died some six hours after he was involved in an accident.

The 77-year-old Bourda resident, according to the Guyana Chronicle, was hit by a Toyota wagon at the junction of Sheriff Street and Rupert Craig Highway late Saturday evening.

At 23:00 hrs he was dead. The cause of death is set to be determined today, following a post mortem.

Judge Harper was also the president of the Guyana Olympic Association and in 2000 served as the chairman of the Law and Justice Committee of the United Nations Association of Guyana.

He is reportedly survived by his wife of 49 years and a son. – Hardbeatnews.com

[piasa]

Europe briefs: Wife’s name released
Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Army officials released Monday the name of a soldier’s spouse who was found dead last week in the couple’s on-base apartment in Wiesbaden, Germany.

The wife of the soldier has been identified as Chevonne Talbot, 30, of Georgetown, Guyana, according to Donna Dean, a spokeswoman for the 221st Base Support Battalion.

Talbot’s husband, whom authorities have not identified, is a soldier assigned to the 421st Medical Evacuation Battalion.

German police are investigating the death, which occurred Oct. 12 in the Hainerberg Housing Area. Talbot’s husband found her body, Dean said.

A German investigator said Friday that suicide does not appear to be the cause of death, adding Talbot was either killed or suffered a fatal accident.