Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, S.C. says the State is prepared to defend its position at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) if Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed succeed in advancing their latest legal challenge to the extradition process.
The father and son have filed documents at the CCJ seeking special leave to appeal a recent Court of Appeal ruling that dismissed their case and cleared the way for extradition proceedings to continue in Guyana.
Nandlall noted that the applicants did not first seek leave from the local Court of Appeal, instead applying directly to the CCJ an approach that he said is allowed, but only if they meet a strict legal threshold.
“They have a right to do so, but there are requirements that have to be satisfied. There is a threshold that has to be met,” he said.
He expressed confidence in the State’s position, pointing to what he described as a strong and decisive unanimous finding against the Mohameds by the Court of Appeal.
“The Court of Appeal unanimously made a particular pronouncement… that the appeal has absolutely no merit,” Nandlall said, describing the ruling as “very deliberate and very powerful.”
He added that such a conclusion raises questions about whether the case meets the standard required for the CCJ to grant special leave to appeal, explaining that leave is granted only where an appeal has “some merit or some prospect of success.”
Nandlall said that, regardless, the State remains ready to contest the matter if it proceeds before the regional court.
“Needless to say, the Attorney General [and] the Minister of Home Affairs… will be defending the case at the Caribbean Court of Justice,” he stated.
The comments come after the Court of Appeal, led by Acting Chancellor Roxane George, upheld an earlier High Court decision that rejected claims of bias in the issuance of the Authority to Proceed (ATP) a key step required to initiate extradition proceedings under the Fugitive Offenders Act.
The Mohameds have argued that the ATP process was tainted by political bias, but both courts rejected their claims.
With the matter now before the CCJ, the court will determine whether to grant special leave for the appeal to proceed.
