November 3 – Jack Warner will spend another Christmas in Trinidad after his extradition proceedings to the US were again put on hold, this time for an appeal against the dismissal of his last procedural challenge that had seemingly opened up the route for him to be transferred to the US.
Warner had protested that the procedures adopted by the Trinidad and Tobago attorney general in agreeing his extradition (under a treaty agreed with the US) in 2015 contradicted the Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act passed by parliament. He claimed that the act gave Trinidad and Tobago citizens certain protections which are ignored by the international treaty.
Justice James Aboud agreed that there were minor inconsistencies between the treaty and legislation, but that Warner’s concerns were exaggerated and speculative and that they were not sufficient to quash the order. “If strict conformity is required, there would be no state in the world in which we could reciprocate,” said the judge.
He is now appealing that ruling.
Warner had also complained that then Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi had failed to give his attorneys a fair opportunity to make representations to him before he signed off on the Authority to Proceed, which was required to start the proceedings in the magistrates’ court.
Chief Magistrate Maria Busby-Earle-Caddle has currently adjourned the case to 18 January 2018, when Netram Kowlessar, who is representing the interest of the US, and Warner’s attorneys are expected to report on the outcome of the application for a stay of the proceedings in the magistrates court.
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