GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC –Two fishermen were sentenced to 25 years in jail after they were found guilty of manslaughter in the death of boat captain Mahadeo Ramdehol, during a piracy attack in 2017.

Justice Navindra Singh on Monday, imposed the sentence on Doodnauth Singh, 63, and Khemraj Narsayah, 44, who appeared at the Berbice High Court.

Last month, the two were charged with murdering the boat captain but opted to plead guilty to the latter count of manslaughter.

The men admitted that on May 16, 2017, in the river between Tain Village and Rose Hall on the Corentyne foreshore, they murdered the 57-year-old boat captain during the act of piracy.

As he was being sentenced Singh urged the judge to “give me a second chance,” while Narsayah who apologised to the family, said he did not expect for “them things to happen”.

Earlier, the victim’s family had given impact statements to the court calling for justice to be served.

The judge said while he considered the nature of the case, he was sentencing the men to 25 years imprisonment with time served on remand to be deducted.

The court heard that on May 16, 2017, the convicted men, armed with a cutlass, went out into the Corentyne River, where they attacked the boat captain and his two crewmen, Arjun Permaul and Parmanand Nandan.

After relieving the victims of some fish and their outboard engine, they chopped Ramdehol on the head with a cutlass and forced the victims to jump overboard.

Ramdehol’s body was found the following day near the Rose Hall foreshore and a post-mortem revealed that he had drowned.