Azruddin Mohamed Remains Jailed As His 24-Year-Old Sister Enters Guyana Parliament 

News Americas, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Wed. Nov. 11, 2026: As Guyana’s Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed remains behind bars, his 24-year-old sister Hadiyyah Mohamed has entered the National Assembly – and used her first day as a parliamentarian to call for his immediate release.

Mohamed was sworn in Wednesday as a Member of Parliament for the We Invest in Nationhood, WIN, party, filling the seat vacated by Dr. Andre Lewis, whose resignation took effect on October 7th. Speaker Manzoor Nadir formally welcomed her to the House, while Prime Minister Mark Phillips extended greetings from the government benches.

Her entry into Parliament comes as her brother remains on remand at Lusignan Prison in connection with a separate cybercrime case involving allegations over the unauthorized acquisition and dissemination of CCTV footage from Guyana’s Safe City initiative. He is due back before the court on November 24.

Hadiyyah Mohamed used her first public statement as an MP to confront criticism that the Mohamed family is attempting to build a political dynasty. She argued that family ties have long existed across Guyana’s political history and should not, by themselves, disqualify anyone from public office.

“A surname does not confer competence, just as having a family connection does not disqualify you from public service,” she said. Mohamed said she wants to be judged on her own record, qualifications, conduct and performance in Parliament.

She holds First Class Honours in Journalism from Edinburgh Napier University and a Master of Letters with Merit in Global Social and Political Thought from the University of St Andrews. Her research interests include political accountability, corruption, postcolonial governance, social justice and power structures. She has also been appointed WIN’s Shadow Minister of Natural Resources, giving her a portfolio at the center of Guyana’s oil-driven economic transformation.

Mohamed said she intends to focus on how Guyana manages its natural wealth, who benefits from that wealth and how development affects the environment, forests, rivers, biodiversity and Indigenous communities.

But the political issue dominating her first day in Parliament was the detention of her brother. Mohamed called for the immediate release of the Opposition Leader, arguing that his office carries constitutional responsibilities to scrutinize the government, lead the opposition and represent constituents.

She described his continued detention as unjust and said his absence from the political process should be treated as a matter of national importance. Those claims reflect Mohamed’s political position and have not been established by a court.

Azruddin Mohamed was remanded on October 30 after being charged alongside Police Constable Ryan Greene over allegations that CCTV footage was unlawfully obtained from the Police Command Centre and supplied to Mohamed in exchange for $800,000. Both men were denied bail in that matter. Mohamed is also facing extradition proceedings and other separate criminal cases. He remains on bail in the extradition matter after a magistrate rejected a prosecution application to revoke that bail, but he remains in custody in the cybercrime case.

His lawyers have separately pursued relief in the High Court, where questions over the form of the bail application and the conditions of his detention have been argued.

Hadiyyah Mohamed said her parliamentary role would not be limited to defending her brother. She pledged to scrutinize government decisions, challenge ministers, demand accountability and focus on the economic pressures facing ordinary Guyanese despite the country’s oil boom.

She also positioned herself as a voice for young people and young women entering public life. “I want young girls to know that they too can be in the rooms where the important decisions are made,” she said.

Her arrival gives WIN a new parliamentary voice at a moment when its leader is absent from the chamber and fighting multiple legal battles. It also places Mohamed immediately under the kind of scrutiny she says she welcomes. She entered Parliament insisting she is not there to build a family political dynasty.

But on her first day in the National Assembly, the political reality was impossible to separate from the family one: her brother remains in prison, and securing his release has already become one of her most visible public demands.