HGP Nightly News – The State is drawing a firm line in the sand. Attorney General Anil Nandlall has declared that the Government will move aggressively to oppose attempts by U.S.-indicted gold traders Azruddin Mohamed and his father Nazar to stall their extradition proceedings at the Caribbean Court of Justice, making it abundantly clear that the legal machinery of the State will not be stopped in its tracks by what he describes as a relentless campaign of delay.
Speaking on his Issues in the News programme on Tuesday evening, Nandlall was unequivocal. The State intends to oppose both the application for special leave before the CCJ and any attempt to freeze the ongoing proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court. A case management hearing at the CCJ was scheduled for Wednesday morning, setting the stage for what promises to be yet another fiercely contested chapter in one of Guyana’s most high-profile legal battles.
The AG dismissed any suggestion that halting the lower court proceedings is either necessary or justified. With committal proceedings already adjourned to April 7, he argued there is simply no urgency that warrants a stay. That window of time, he maintained, is more than sufficient for the CCJ to consider and rule on any application for special leave without throwing the Magistrate’s Court process into further disarray. “There is no urgency,” he said flatly.
What has clearly tested Nandlall’s patience, however, is the sheer volume of legal challenges the Mohamed family has mounted across Guyana’s court system in a remarkably short space of time. Constitutional challenges, judicial review applications, appeals and related filings have been thrown at the judiciary in rapid succession, yet the courts, he noted with evident satisfaction, have matched that pace, disposing of roughly ten matters across the High Court, Full Court and Court of Appeal in swift fashion. “These proceedings were filed only last week,” he pointed out, “yet dates have already been fixed and matters heard.”
But while the higher courts have moved with speed, Nandlall was blunt about what has been happening at the level where it matters most, the Magistrate’s Court. There, he alleged, the extradition proceedings have been deliberately and systematically bogged down. Repeated adjournments, prolonged cross-examination of witnesses and a flood of filings in superior courts have, in his view, served one singular purpose: to delay the committal process for as long as possible. He singled out the cross-examination of a witness from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as particularly egregious, describing it as “unprecedented” given that it has dragged on for months and frequently veers into territory he considers wholly irrelevant to the matter at hand.
Efforts to frustrate the legal process may continue, he acknowledged, but he said it will ultimately fail. “The law,” he said with certainty, “will prevail in the end.”
