(Jamaica Observer) A day after the United States requested the extradition of accused drug lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke in 2009, National Security Minister Dwight Nelson is said to have expressed deep fears to then police commissioner Hardley Lewin that the Government could collapse if the request was granted.
The disclosure was made yesterday by Lewin while testifying before the commission of enquiry looking into the Government’s handling of the extradition request, which led to a nine-month stand-off between Jamaica and the US and strained relations between both countries.
Former police chief Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin at yesterday’s sitting of the commission of enquiry looking into Government’s handling of the extradition request for former Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, which led to a nine-month stand-off between Jamaica and the United States. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)
During the impasse, which drew international attention, the United States-based law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips was hired to lobby Washington for a favourable outcome on the issue, a matter that later led to calls for Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s resignation.
Yesterday, Lewin told the nationally-televised commission of enquiry that on the morning of August 26, 2009 — the day after the extradition request was sent — he spoke with Nelson in order to find out what was holding up the signing of the authority to proceed with extradition proceedings against Coke.
“He informed me that it was a matter for the justice minister,” Lewin said Nelson told him.
“CP,” Lewin said Nelson told him, “you don’t understand. This matter could cause the Government to collapse.”
“Oh,” Lewin said he responded to the minister and from that day on he was determined not to speak further with anyone in Government about the Coke extradition request.
According to Lewin, the conversation with Nelson followed one he had with Solicitor General Douglas Leys on August 25 about the status of the extradition request and its “outlook”. He said that Leys informed him that Dorothy Lightbourne, the minister of justice and attorney general, appeared annoyed over the push to initiate extradition proceedings against Coke.
“He told me that the document is with the minister of justice and that the document, she had been informed, is in order but that she is making a fuss as to the undue haste to sign the document,” Lewin told the commission.
Lewin said he asked for and was given Lightbourne’s telephone number by Leys. Calls to the number, Lewin said, went unanswered. During cross-examination by Queen’s Counsel Frank Phipps, Lewin was called a ‘busy body’ meddling in an a diplomatic issue that did not concern him.
Lewin, in a war of words with Nelson in the wake of Coke’s eventual capture and extradition last June, claimed that the accused drug lord was informed about the extradition request 15 minutes after a high-level security meeting at the Prime Minister’s office in Kingston. His cross-examination is to continue on Monday.
Coke, who is now awaiting trial in the US on drug and gunrunning charges, has been an ardent supporter of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and operated in the Tivoli Gardens community, located in the prime minister’s West Kingston constituency.
Testifying earlier during yesterday’s sitting of the commission, Information Minister Daryl Vaz, who was deputy treasurer of the JLP, said under cross-examination that the US$50,000 that was used to pay for the services of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips was “clean” money that came from a legitimate source.
Vaz also said that the firm was not working on behalf of the Government of Jamaica. He also said that the party did not contract the US firm with a view to quelling the extradition request.
