Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC, has said that the Extradition and Legal Assistance agreements currently being developed between Guyana and Suriname, is a sign of this country’s commitment to working with its eastern neighbour.
During the recent State visit by Suriname’s President, Chandrikapersad Santokhi, at the invitation of President Irfaan Ali, the two Heads of State underscored the importance of enhancing bilateral and multilateral security cooperation between Guyana and Suriname.
Further, they expressed their support for the initiation of practical measures towards this end, in the context of maintaining peace and stability in both countries.
Against this background, both Presidents agreed to initiate discussions between their Ministers responsible for legal affairs, towards the conclusion of a mutual legal assistance agreement and an extradition agreement.
In his response to questions from the media on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the mid-year programme review of the Support for the Criminal Justice System Programme (SCJS) last week, Nandlall who is also Minister of Legal Affairs, said the agreements are testimony to the relationship between the two countries.
The AG said that Guyana has committed to having a working relationship with the Government and people of Suriname on almost every conceivable front and that the two agreements are “part and parcel of the process.”
He said that because Suriname has a different legal system from Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean— in generic terms—without identifying specifics, the two countries will have to enter “special arrangements in order to establish that collaborative relationship which we would like to have with Suriname.”
“…Because, what we can do with Trinidad or Barbados or Jamaica; we can’t do with Suriname, in some instances” he said, while adding; that it is in those instances, that the two Republics would have to fashion “whatever is requisite under the two legal systems to make that collaboration possible.”
He stressed that it is in the context of the two different legal systems, that the legal assistance and extradition agreements become important.
