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The extradition legislation

Oct 24, 2009 Editorial

The National Assembly has passed a Bill that allows for the easy extradition of fugitives. And indeed there have been requests primarily from the United States for offenders from Guyana.
Some have been extradited after their moments in the magistrates and a few took their matters all the way to the Guyana Court of Appeal. Some lost and were extradited. There was due process. The laws of Guyana were more exact than in Trinidad where all the requesting country needed to do was to show probable cause.
In Guyana there had to be justification. The mere submission of writs and sealed affidavits were not enough. This was harshly exposed when the local authorities sought to accede to a request for the extradition of some men accused of drug dealings. One of them was Barry Dataram.
There was a ruling by the Appellate Court that appeared to clear the way for extradition by request. However, Chief Justice Ian Chang found a lacuna. The treaty that Guyana inherited as a result of being a colony of Britain allowed for the extradition of Guyanese to the United States. But that treaty did not allow for the extradition of Guyanese to a country that would further extradite them to a third country.
This was something that Chief Justice Ian Chang found and he so ordered. Indeed, the powers that be relied on an age old rule—that a lower court cannot overturn a decision by the higher court.
The Appellate Court had ruled that there could be extradition but the legal experts argued that the decision by the higher court was wrong in law.
To correct what was obviously an aberration the government moved to Parliament to regularise the situation. But the legal profession now feels that the new law is wrong, that it is not in keeping with the rules of natural justice.
The new rule allows the Minister of Home Affairs to determine that the request for extradition is valid and that the person to be extradited has little or no recourse to further appeals outside the established stipulated procedures.
One aspect of the new Bill states that if the person to be extradited has a complaint he has no recourse to any objection. In short, once the Minister determines that there should be an extradition then the person to be extradited cannot file an objection.
At one time Guyana prided itself on the rigidity of its laws to protect its citizens. Now with the passage of this Bill the situation is not vastly removed.
The decision by the Chief Justice when he found the lacuna in the extant law must have rankled because it formed part of the debate in the National Assembly. The comments that emanated from the Attorney General suggested that there was anger in the administration over the interpretation of the law.
The law is not made to suit any administration. The chips must fall where they may. But the Attorney General did not feel that way.
There is an amendment to the law pertaining to extraditions. However, members of the legal profession are not happy. They too have seen the flaws. They see that the rights of the individual are being subordinated.
Indeed, no one should be denied the right of natural justice but this law seems to do this. In these pages, one lawyer feels that the law as it now stands is an effort to facilitate the United States. He says that this is an embarrassment and he is urging that President Bharrat Jagdeo does not assent to the Bill.
The truth is that once President Jagdeo assents, which he is most likely to do, then the people whom the United States want will have to be shipped out.
The Shaheed Khan issue seems to have paved the way for the other drug dealers. It is this that must have sparked the haste for the passing of what the legal profession sees as a flawed legislation.

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