-in Mohamed extradition case

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Senior Counsel Anil Nandlall says the Caribbean Court of Justice’s (CCJ) ruling should put to rest claims that Guyana’s judicial system is politically influenced.

The AG argued that the country’s courts have been consistently vindicated throughout the extradition proceedings involving United States-sanctioned businessman Azruddin Mohamed and his father, Nazar Mohamed.

Speaking during his Issues in the News programme on Tuesday, the AG noted that the appellants had repeatedly questioned the impartiality of Guyana’s courts and the extradition process before taking their case to the region’s highest court.

He said the CCJ’s unanimous decision demonstrated that the legal process had been properly followed from the outset.

“Recall they were attacking the legal system of Guyana. They were attacking the courts in Guyana. They were saying that the extradition proceedings were politically inspired and instituted, that they were being politically influenced and that the courts in Guyana were being politically influenced,” Nandlall said.

The Attorney General pointed to remarks previously made by Azruddin Mohamed after he travelled overseas while ill, recalling that he had suggested he needed to leave Guyana in search of justice.

“The second named appellant put a post up that he was ill with dengue and had to cross the Caribbean Sea to get justice. Well, he got justice. I hope he’s satisfied with the justice that he got,” AG Nandlall remarked.

According to Nandlall, the outcome before the CCJ reinforces earlier decisions handed down by Guyana’s High Court and Court of Appeal, with every court rejecting the principal arguments advanced by the appellants.

He urged members of the public to examine the complete judgment instead of relying on excerpts circulating online.

In its ruling, the Caribbean Court of Justice unanimously dismissed the appeal brought by Nazar and Azruddin Mohamed, rejecting claims that the Authority to Proceed issued by the Minister of Home Affairs was tainted by bias and therefore invalid.

The Court upheld the legality of the Authority to Proceed, lifted the interim stay that had halted the extradition proceedings, and cleared the way for the committal hearings in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts to continue.