Defence files fixed date application to prevent extradition proceeding at Magistrates’ Courts

Apr 08, 2018 News

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The battery of lawyers who are representing Troy Anthony Thomas, who is wanted in the United States for murder, yesterday filed a fixed date application to prevent the extradition proceeding at the Magistrates’ Courts.
Yesterday the lawyers Nigel Hughes, Bernard DaSilva and Darren Wade filed a fixed date application before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow in the High Court. Attorney-at-law Stacy Goodings is representing the Government of United States.
The lawyers fixed date application stated that a declaration that the United States of America (extradition) order in council 1935 does not form part of the domestic laws of Guyana, hence the declaration that the provisions of the United States of America (extradition) order in council 1935 No. 574 cannot be enforced by a Magistrate.
They added that the provisions of section 8 (3) (3B) (B) of the Fugitive Offenders Act 1988 insofar as it purports to direct a Magistrate, High Court, Full Court and Court of Appeal on the interpretation of the law of a commonwealth county, a treaty territory or a treaty relating to the extradition of fugitive offenders act is unconstitutional.
The lawyers are contending that Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus possesses no authority at law or otherwise to enforce the provisions of the Treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States of America for the mutual extradition of fugitive criminals signed on December 22, 1931.
They added that the provisions are unconstitutional, null and void or have no legal effect.
The lawyers are therefore contending that their client is a citizen of Guyana and he is entitled to the protection of the provision of the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
The provisions of the treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States were never incorporated into the domestic laws of Guyana. They remained at all material times a treaty between sovereign states.
There was no provision in the aforesaid treaty which restricted the requesting state from extraditing a fugitive offender to a third state without the permission of the Minister in Guyana.
In the absence of any provision in the treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States preventing the extradition of the applicant to third state by the requesting state, the Minister of Public Security is not empowered to consider and/or grant an authority to proceed to the Chief Magistrate for extradition of the applicant from Guyana to the United States of America.
Section 8 of the Fugitive Offenders Act cannot purport to change and/or direct a court to interpret as changing the terms and articles of the Treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom as succeeded by the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
On the last court appearance in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, the lawyers stated that the rights of their client are being infringed upon because the matter is being heard in the lower court. As such, they moved to the High Court where they say the matter will be fully ventilated and addressed.
The lawyers said that the Magistrate is sitting without power when such matters cannot be dealt with in the Magistrates’ Courts.
Attorney-at-law Stacy Goodings, who is representing the U.S. Government, told the court that she would examine the submissions made on behalf of the fugitive as it relates to the incorporation of the treaties and how they are to achieve their binding forces.
This matter comes up again on April 11, in the Providence Magistrate’s Courts.
Thomas, who told law enforcement officials he had been living in Guyana for some eight years, was held on March 14, after police swooped down on a house at Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.
Police say that Thomas, who resided overseas at 32nd Street, South Ozone Park, Queens, New York, U.S.A, fled to Guyana after allegedly gunning down another Guyanese, 20-year-old Keith Frank, in Queens, New York, seven years ago.
It was disclosed that the operation to apprehend Thomas had started since January.
Thomas is alleged to have fled to Guyana shortly after an arrest warrant was issued for him in the U.S. for the murder of Frank, who was slain on December 11, 2011.
Frank succumbed to a bullet wound to the torso, allegedly during a confrontation with Thomas and others.
Reports in U.S. media stated that the killing occurred outside a party.
Frank’s mother, Carol Kyte, was quoted as saying that her son was attending a birthday party and ran into some other men with whom he had an ongoing dispute. During his first court appearance, Thomas denied ever being charged in the U.S for murder. On that occasion, Attorney Goodings had opposed bail being granted to Thomas, after citing the serious nature of the offence and the fact that he poses a risk of flight. The lawyer also told the court that there are no records at the Central Immigration Office to support that Thomas had entered Guyana.

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