Mohameds’ attempt to challenge extradition law “frivolous” – Prosecutor

The extradition proceedings involving United States-indicted businessmen, Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed, returned to the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on Monday, before Magistrate Judy Latchman.

In court, the father and son duo’s legal team pressed ahead with a constitutional challenge to the recent amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Act. The defence argued that the legislative changes are unconstitutional, contending that they infringe upon the Mohameds’ right to liberty and undermine their ability to access a fair and impartial legal process.

Their attorneys have formally asked that the constitutional issues be transferred to the High Court for a definitive ruling. Magistrate Latchman has set Wednesday, December 10, for delivering her decision.

However, according to Prosecutor Terrence Williams, the constitutional challenge mounted by the father-son duo against recent amendments to Guyana’s extradition law is “frivolous and vexatious”.

“The main argument was that the constitutional issues do not arise for the consideration of the law of magistrate. The application is frivolous and vexatious because, first of all, there are no real constitutional issues and they certainly do not arise for consideration at this time. First, because many of these rights which they rely on expressly exclude extradition from consideration and also because the magistrate has a certain duty to perform and the duty that she has to perform does not include the considerations that the defendants have raised,” Williams said.

The argument for the Mohameds is the legality of Guyana’s 2009 amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Act.

“Well, after Parliament passed the amendment to reaffirm the decision of the Court of Appeal in King and Justice Barlow’s decision in Marvin Williams is the first and, as far as we know, on the pronouncement on the amendment. It itself reaffirmed what the Court of Appeal had previously said in King. So it was important for us to put that before the Court. Well, it is that the defendants raised an issue which would not normally have arisen in an extradition proceeding before the magistrate. In fact, they raised it to the press and not to the court. And so, we heard about it and so we were able to provide a diplomatic note which dealt with that issue,” the prosecutor said.

The diplomatic note issue referred to by the prosecutor was later explained by Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall.

In an interview by News Room on Monday, Nandlall explained that the defence’s claims regarding constitutional breaches and an allegedly “deficient” extradition treaty with the United States have already been conclusively rejected by Guyana’s courts.

The Mohameds remain $150,000 bail each as the case continues.

The father-son duo have been indicted by a grand jury in the United States (US) District Court for the Southern District of Florida on 11 criminal charges ranging from wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering, primarily connected to the export of gold to the US by their company, Mohamed’s Enterprises. The Mohameds are accused of conspiring to defraud the US and Guyanese governments between 2017 and June 11, 2024.