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The Goding administration is in court with an action seeking a decision that the GOJ has the power to consider the wiretapped evidence to block extradition of the alleged criminal....having now just signed the said extradition order Chessmasta ah di bes!
'Dudus' attorney baffled
Says Gov’t has no authority to proceed against his client
BY PAUL HENRY Sunday Observer staff reporter henryp@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, May 23, 2010
THE lead attorney for Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher "Dudus" Coke said Friday he was baffled by Government's decision to sanction extradition proceedings against his client, after months of refusing to do so on grounds that the evidence was illegally obtained.
Don Foote, who along with Paul Beswick appears for Coke, said Prime Minister Bruce Golding does not have the authority to direct Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne to give the green light to start with extradition proceedings.
Additionally, he said that Lightbourne had not presented any new material that would cause her to act as she did, given the fact that she had been adamant that extradition proceedings could not have been brought against Coke with the information at hand.
Furthermore, Coke's legal team has pointed out that it was only a few weeks ago that Lightbourne had sought declarations in the High Court, as to her power under the Extradition Act to consider evidence illegally obtained in her decision not to sign the extradition request that had been on her desk since last August.
But Coke will have to wait until May 31 before being able to launch phase one of his legal battle against the justice minister's decision giving the authority to commence with extradition proceedings against him.
His lawyers had on Tuesday filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking Judicial Review of Lightbourne's decision, on the basis that the minister had contended all along that the US had illegally obtained wire-tap information against Coke, who is wanted in that country on drug- and arms-trafficking charges.
Coke's application for Judicial Review was scheduled to be heard on Friday at 12 noon, but Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn, who is named as second defendant in Coke's motion, was not served papers and the matter was adjourned for 2:15 for this to be done.
However, at 2:15 when the parties gathered in the chambers of Chief Justice Zaila McCalla, the matter had to be postponed until May 31 as the DPP requested time to properly respond to Coke's application. Before the adjournment, McCalla made a preliminary ruling that the status quo remains, meaning that the warrant for Coke's arrest was still in effect.
If Coke is successful in his effort to secure Judicial Review of Lightbourne's decision, a stay would be placed on the arrest warrant, pending the outcome of the review, which would be heard by three Supreme Court justices.
The warrant for Coke's arrest was issued by a magistrate on Tuesday, a day after the embattled Golding announced in a public broadcast on Monday night that he had instructed Lightbourne to give the authority to commence extradition proceedings against Coke.
