Prime Minister of Jamaica to clear extradition hurdle
Published:Monday | November 15, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer
Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding has assured Washington that his government will make legislative changes to prevent a repeat of the bloody melodrama surrounding the extradition of Jamaican Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, alleged by the United States to be a major criminal kingpin.
Golding, who made the announcement yesterday, did not disclose the specific law or laws to be amended, but said the changes would remove the impediments that existed in the Coke case, which constituted a breach of Jamaican law.
"It (amending the law) would be in the spirit of the cooperation that exists between the two countries," Golding told supporters at the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Area Council One conference held at the Denham Town Community Centre in his West Kingston constituency.
He said the amendment has already been authorised by Cabinet and was now being prepared by the chief parliamentary counsel.
"As soon as that is completed, we will take that to Parliament and we will amend the law so that we do not run into this kind of problem in the future," Golding said.
The Golding administration argued, in nine months of toing and froing over the Coke extradition request - dating back to August 2009 - that US authorities did not provide enough information about the co-conspirators and that wiretap evidence, handed over to US authorities by a Jamaican policeman, was illegally obtained.
Earlier this year, Golding instructed Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne to sign the extradition request for Coke, even though the Obama administration refused to budge, insisting that the request was valid.
Sticking to his guns
Yesterday, Golding stuck to his initial defence, telling supporters that the way Coke's extradition request was presented amounted to an encroachment on Jamaican law.
"A breach of Jamaican law for which no remedy existed within the law and no remedy existed within the court," he emphasised.
"I try to demonstrate and explain that there were issues involved that cannot be swept away. There are serious legal issues involved," said Golding, who has established a commission of enquiry to probe the drama, which climaxed in a shock-and-awe military raid on Coke's Tivoli Gardens fortress in May, resulting in the slaying of one soldier and 73 civilians, as loyalist thugs tried to protect the strongman.
Coke was eventually extradited in June.
The prime minister said during talks with US officials since Coke's extradition, his administration had made it clear that it would honour its obligations in all the treaties and agreements to which Jamaica is a signatory.