(Jamaica Observer) Former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) General Secretary Karl Samuda on Wednesday denied that there was a plot by the party to block the extradition request of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.
Samuda was under cross-examination at the Dudus/Manatt Commission of Enquiry looking into the Government’s handling of the extradition request that had sparked a nine-month impasse between Jamaica and the United States and strained the otherwise friendly relationship between both countries.
Samuda — who had told the commission that he only learnt, after the fact, of the hiring of the US-based law firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips by the JLP — was being grilled by Queen’s Counsel K D Knight who made the suggestion of a plot by the governing party.
“There was a plot within the Jamaica Labour Party… to prevent the extradition of Coke and that is why the firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips was hired,” Knight suggested.
But a combative Samuda, shot back, “I disagree with that vehemently.”
Samuda had earlier cut off Knight, who is representing the People’s National Party (PNP) in the middle of making the same suggestion, saying, “There was no plot. I will not agree to that.”
The answer appeared to have delighted the throng of Cabinet ministers and party supporters — mainly females — who showed up at the enquiry decked in green T-shirts.
Asked by Knight if a reasonable person could infer that Manatt, Phelps and Phillips had been hired by the Jamaica Labour Party to “resist the extradition of Coke”, Samuda said: “I don’t share your view.”
He added that the party’s intention was to protect Coke’s constitutional rights. The JLP is contending that Coke’s rights had been breached by the US with the interception of his telephone conversation.
Meanwhile, Samuda said that Prime Minister Bruce Golding had seen and even made what he said were minor changes to the press release announcing the resignation of Dr Ronald Robinson in which the former junior foreign minister acknowledged responsibility for meeting with representatives of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips in December 2009 regarding the extradition request and apologised to Golding.
But Samuda caught flak from Knight for not including in a report from an investigation he conducted on the impasse between information minister Daryl Vaz and attorney Harold Brady, the man at the centre of the Manatt controversy, that it was Golding who sent Robinson to meet with the representatives of Manatt in Washington.
Knight intimated that the omission was a means of covering up the prime minister’s role at the time.
During the morning session of the sitting, Samuda, under intense and extensive questioning from Knight, refused to say who were the two persons who initially approached Harold Brady about exploring his overseas contacts with a view to “open up dialogue between Jamaica and the United States over the extradition request”.
Said Samuda: “I’m prepared to accept the consequences; I’m prepared to be prosecuted; I’m prepared to accept the fines — but I’m not prepared to reveal their names,” said a defiant Samuda.
Knight, in light of Samuda’s refusal, had recommended that the necessary steps be taken to have Samuda charged for obstructing the commission. Knight later withdrew his recommendation.
Samuda, even under further cross-examination from Queen’s Counsel Patrick Atkinson, refused to identify the person who approached the prime minister with the idea of hiring a US law firm to handle the dialogue between Kingston and Washington over the extradition request.
Samuda also denied suggestions from Atkinson that the Government was being used to stall Coke’s extradition while the JLP work behind the scene to secure the withdrawal of the request.
Samuda also said that he knew Coke “very well”, and that he met with him several times but was only made aware of his alleged ties with the deadly Shower Posse criminal gang through the media.
However, Samuda — who was being crossed-examined — said he was not aware that the former Tivoli Gardens don was “closely” associated with the JLP.
Samuda also said that he did not know if Coke was a financial contributor to the JLP. He, however, said that Coke’s political influence within Tivoli was minimal.
Samuda said he knew that Coke lived “from time to time” in Tivoli Gardens where he was “a person of influence” on a social level.
Tivoli Gardens is based in West Kingston, whose member of Parliament is Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
Knight elicited laughter at the commission when he commended Samuda for admitting to knowing Coke in light of previous evidence given at the tribunal by Vaz, the information minister, and Security Minister Dwight Nelson that they did not know and had never met Coke.
After a nine-month impasse, Coke was last June extradited to the United States where he is awaiting trial on gun and drug-running charges.
