GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP):
A FORMER policeman accused of participating in an alleged hit squad blamed for about 40 executions in Guyana will stand trial in the death of a cattle farmer.
Shawn Hinds, charged with murder in the January 2004 slaying of Shafeek Bacchus, will go to trial today, a judge ruled late Friday.
State prosecutors say Hinds was one of three men who shot and killed Bacchus, mistaking the man for his brother George, who told the United States Embassy and other embassies in 2003 about the existence of a squad formed to hunt down a group of fugitives who escaped from prison.
The squad grew to include private hits of suspected criminals after a wave of violent killings rocked Guyana in 2002 and 2003, George Bacchus had said. During those years, about 370 people were slain.
George Bacchus said he quit being an informer for the squad in late 2003, because it had started killing people for petty crimes.
George Bacchus was fatally shot last year - one day before he was scheduled to testify against Hinds and other suspected hit squad members.
