For more than 12 hours, Natasha Singh says she did not sleep, eat lunch, shower or brush her teeth.
The Member of Parliament for the opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) says she spent much of the night standing at the door of a police cell at the Farm Police Station, East Bank Demerara, with her nose pushed through the mesh in an attempt to breathe cleaner air.
She said the cell was so dusty that, because she suffers from asthma, she feared remaining inside could trigger a medical emergency.
“I went in and I stood by the door, and I put my nose through the mesh so I can breathe the air outside,” Singh told Village Voice News in an interview recounting her experience after being detained in the early hours of Aug. 26.
“That thing is inhumane, what they do to people.”
Singh was arrested at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, during the police operation at Friendship, East Bank Demerara. Police allege she was unlawfully in possession of a firearm and ammunition after a licensed firearm belonging to fellow MP Dawn Hastings-Williams was found in Singh’s vehicle. Singh was subsequently released on G$200,000 bail.
The arrest occurred during a tense overnight operation involving the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard and several WIN parliamentarians following the interception of a vessel at Friendship, East Bank Demerara.
Police said the vessel had been travelling at high speed and failed to stop when signalled. Opposition figures disputed that account, saying the vessel was already docked when authorities arrived. Police also said a bag was seen being thrown from the vessel into the Demerara River.
But it was the hours that followed her arrest that Singh-Lewis says left the deepest impression.
‘They didn’t allow him to speak with me’
Singh said she was placed in the police lockup at approximately 1 a.m.
About half an hour later, she said, WIN colleague Duarte Hetsberger arrived to check on her welfare. She said he knew she was hypertensive and asthmatic and had come because he was concerned about her health.
He was not allowed to speak with her, she said.
Then, at about 4 a.m., her children arrived.
“They were told that I am not allowed to speak to anyone, and so they too had to go back without seeing me.”
Her eldest child, she said, knew that she needed her medication because of her asthma.
“My eldest child knows that I am asthmatic and need my medication. That is why she came, and she also was denied any access to me.”
Singh said she did not receive her medication until about 8:30 a.m., when a detective removed her from the cell and brought her into the CID room.
“I need my medication right now because I am hypertensive and I have been suffering a massive headache for the last four hours, and I know that headache is because my blood pressure is high.”
She said the detective permitted her to retrieve the medication and take it in his presence.
“He made a note of it,” she said.
‘Nothing, nothing’
Singh said she was not provided lunch and was not given an opportunity to shower or brush her teeth.
Asked whether she received meals or basic grooming facilities, her response was blunt:
“No, nothing. Nothing, nothing. Nothing.”
She said WIN parliamentarian Toshana Towana Famey-Corlette later arrived with burgers. Because Famey-Corlette was a member of Parliament, Singh said, a detective allowed her into his office.
At that point, Singh said she was already there being interviewed.
But the most difficult part of the detention, she said, was the cell itself.
She rejected the description of the sleeping surface as a four-inch mattress.
“It’s a sponge. It’s not a mattress.”
She said she did not sleep on it.
Instead, she stood by the cell door.
“I stood at the door, so it was through that vent to breathe because it was very, very dusty.”
She said she remained there because she believed staying inside could provoke an asthma attack.
“I mean, I’m telling you, that was the best I could have done for myself, because if I’d stayed in the cell and sit there and whatever, I would have gotten an asthma attack.”
Singh-Lewis said she feared she would then be taken to Diamond Regional Hospital, which she believes would not have adequate oxygen supplies.
“So I did my best in coping by standing at the door.”
She said officers came to check on her several times.
“Every time they came and checked on me, I’m standing at the door.”
A cell with no privacy
Singh also described the sanitation arrangements inside the cell.
She said there was a concrete bowl used for urination and defecation, along with a small space equipped with a shower head.
But she said the mesh door meant people walking past could see inside.
“There’s a little space with a shower head, and I turned it; water is coming. But the door to the cell is mesh. Anybody passing left, right, and center can see you.”
She said she asked for a chair, particularly because she wanted to pray.
“I asked for a chair because 5 o’clock, no matter my condition, I would have prayed. They denied me access to a chair.”
Asked whether that meant she could not pray, she answered:
“I couldn’t pray. I couldn’t pray.”
For Singh the physical conditions were compounded by what she described as the emotional weight of the detention.
“I felt overwhelmed with emotions,” she said.
She believes the treatment of WIN lawmakers is connected to what she described as broader political pressure against the party.
“I felt like the PPP [People’s Progressive Party] is getting to the Members of Parliament because they can’t get to the Opposition Leader [Azruddin Mohamed]”
She said she believes the victimisation has gone beyond politics and into her family life.
“I felt like the political victimisation is overboard, because I have been suffering that for quite a while in my personal life and otherwise. The victimisation has reached my children, and I felt like it was too much. It was just too much what they were doing.”
She said she plans to seek therapy following the experience.
The episode unfolded as part of a wider confrontation involving WIN leader and Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed and other lawmakers. Mohamed was also detained and later released on $100,000 bail.
WIN, which won 16 seats in the 2025 General and Regional Election, is now the largest opposition party in Guyana’s 13th Parliament.
Singh’s account adds a deeply personal dimension to an already politically charged law-enforcement operation.
She does not describe the night simply as an arrest.
She describes it as a test of endurance — one she says forced her to stand for hours at a mesh door, breathing through an opening because she feared the air inside the cell could make her sick.
And when asked to describe the treatment, she returned to one word:
“Inhumane.”
