HGP Nightly News – In a dramatic development that neither the High Court nor the Guyana Court of Appeal was willing to grant, the Caribbean Court of Justice has stepped in to freeze the extradition committal proceedings against city businessmen Azruddin Mohamed and his father Nazar “Shell” Mohamed, at least for now. The region’s highest court issued the interim stay on Wednesday, sending shockwaves through a case that has already wound its way through nearly every level of Guyana’s judiciary.
The order, sweeping in its scope, halts the proceedings before the court of committal entirely, suspending them until the CCJ’s special leave application and any substantive appeal are fully heard and determined, or until the court issues a further directive. CCJ President Winston Anderson, in granting the stay, framed it simply as a matter of justice. He acknowledged that extradition cases must be handled with urgency, expressing hope that the court would be in a position to deliver a decision on April 21 or shortly thereafter.
At the heart of the Mohameds’ appeal is a question that cuts to the very core of due process, whether political bias tainted their extradition case from the outset. Specifically, the duo is challenging a Guyana Court of Appeal ruling that Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn performed a purely administrative function when he issued an Authority to Proceed, directing a magistrate to advance the United States’ request for the pair’s extradition to face trial for alleged financial crimes.
The CCJ has now granted permission for that Court of Appeal decision to be appealed, treating the application for permission as the substantive appeal itself, a signal that the regional court considers the matter serious enough to warrant full examination.
The timing adds yet another layer of complexity to an already convoluted legal saga.
Committal proceedings had been set to resume from April 7 to 10, but Azruddin Mohamed’s battle against dengue fever, confirmed by a diagnosis and lab results submitted to Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman on Tuesday, had already cast doubt over that schedule. With the CCJ’s stay now firmly in place, those dates are rendered moot regardless, and all eyes turn to April 21 as the next critical moment in a case that shows no signs of reaching its conclusion anytime soon.
