Dear Editor,
Now that the US judge has spoken, the Guyana Government should make a formal objection against (1) 17 new charges brought by the US against Mr. Roger Khan in breach of the extradition provision of Specialty; and (2) the judge’s declaration that Mr. Khan was indeed renditioned. That is, in non-legal terms, abducted.
On November 30 last year, Judge Dora Irizarry made these 2 critical rulings in favour of Mr Khan in a federal court in Brooklyn . Because Mr Khan was, initially, the subject of extradition papers submitted by the US , he is now entitled to certain rights under the doctrine of Specialty, a provision generally attached to extradition treaties.
Under Specialty, a person extradited to face a criminal charge generally cannot be subjected to new pre-extradition charges, once handed over to a receiving country. The US held Mr Khan in June 2006 and added 17 new charges in February 2007.
However, without objection from Guyana or Trinidad , the charges will remain. Trinidad, complicit in the abduction, was forced to comply with the biddings of the US .
Also, the judge accepted Mr Khan’s argument that although extradition papers were started, he was actually renditioned by US agents on June 29, 2006, in Trinidad . The US had argued that Mr Khan was neither abducted nor extradited. Instead, he was deported from Suriname and “rejected” by Trinidad . The US said he was “stateless.”
But violation is evident in the very Rejection Order used by Trinidad, which allowed for only 4 options: return Mr Khan to Suriname; send him to Guyana; or to a country in which he is a “national” citizen; or to any nation that would accept him, providing that Mr Khan agreed.
Clearly, the US met none of these factors. Yet, the form was addressed to the “US Dept of Justice” and read that Trinidad has “arranged to have Shaheed Khan conveyed to the USA leaving Piarco on N7734T” (flight no.).
Abduction actually began in Suriname when he was deported, despite the start of judicial proceedings: Mr. Khan was to appear in court to contest extradition, when he was expelled. The extradition request to the Surinamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 19, 2006, said that the US was “prepared, upon request, to facilitate the removal” of Mr. Khan.
However, under the 1887 US-Netherlands treaty, extradition appeared difficult because it required that Khan be “actually within such jurisdiction [ US ] when the crime
