Guyana: Nigel Dharamlall is accused of sexual harassment by another woman

CNN
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A powerful politician in Guyana has been accused of sexual assault for the second time in less than a year after resigning last July amid separate allegations.

The accuser, economist Sarah Aneesah Hakh, told an online news conference in the capital Georgetown that former minister Nigel Dharamlall sexually abused her in 2020 and 2021. Hakh said the first alleged incident occurred during a business meeting when Dharamlall was Guyana’s chief regional development minister.

“The fact that he is still in this party is overwhelming to me,” Hakh said.

Dharamlall, a Guyanese politician seen as a power broker in the country, was recently appointed to the executive committee of Guyana’s ruling People’s Progressive Party. He was recently photographed with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.

Dharamlall denied the allegations in a statement posted on his Facebook page, saying: “I wish to categorically and vehemently deny each and every accusation made.” He accused Hakh of engaging in a “campaign to tarnish my reputation,” and claimed , that “her behavior toward me fundamentally changed after I rebuffed her advances and rejected her attempts to enter into an intimate relationship.”

CNN has reached out to Dharamlall for comment and contacted the office of Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali.

Dharamlall resigned from Guyana’s cabinet and parliament last year after an indigenous young girl accused him of rape in an unrelated incident, which he has denied.

According to officials, the girl later withdrew the complaint and no charges were filed, President Ali said in a video statement last July. He emphasized at the time that his government had “let the system work.” We didn’t intervene; from day one,” apparently referring to public criticism of the way the authorities handled the girl’s case.

However, her withdrawal was seen by some as a sign of corruption in the government, and the public speculated that her family had been paid off.

In a statement in March, Guyanese women’s rights group Red Thread criticized officials for failing the accuser.

“It is very worrying that the public nature of this complaint, the strong political status of the suspect, the closure of the matter at this early stage and the haste with which this investigation has been concluded will inevitably reinforce the impression of impunity for other victims sexual violence from coming forward,” it said.

Hakh, who was considered a rising star in Guyana, said she was first attacked by Dharamlall during a meeting regarding her taking on a role as regional director in September 2020. She alleged that Dharamlall assaulted the then 25-year-old in his bedroom, undressed himself and forcibly performed oral sex on her without her consent in the Anna Regina State House, a city on the country’s coast.

Hakh told reporters on Friday that she told Dharamlall to stop several times, saying she was a lesbian and “this is not something I expected here and I can’t offer anything.”

“I was violated against my will by a man who took advantage of my situation and tried to put me in a compromising situation because of my future contract with the ministry,” she said.

Hakh also claimed that a second incident occurred in 2021 in the Cummings Lodge neighborhood on the outskirts of Georgetown when she said she met Dharamlall to discuss several complaints she had with the Ministry of Local Government. During their meeting, Hakh claims that Dharamlall tried to remove her clothes.

Hakh told CNN that she did not file a police report in 2020 or 2021 because she feared the police were corrupt and that she would be shunned publicly and within her family, who she said had done business with Dharamlall.

“I knew I was dealing with something dangerous, and my whole strategy was that if I made a preemptive report that went nowhere, I would automatically lose credibility,” she said at Friday’s news conference. She added that she finally filed a police report on May 9.

Hakh said she also filed cyberbullying charges against Dharamlall on May 8. CNN has contacted the Guyanese police for comment.

Hakh said she decided to go public with her allegations because “I need to give the victims the strength to know that they are not alone and that what happened to them is not shameful.”