Lawyers fear another Roger Khan episode
• checking on Peter Morgan hourly
Kaieteur News
March 11, 2007
Lawyers for arrested Guyanese Peter Morgan are doing everything to ensure that their client is not smuggled out of Trinidad and Tobago to the United States . They say that they are bent on ensuring that another Shaheed Roger Khan episode does not occur.
Khan was at Piarco airport having been deported from Suriname when Drug Enforcement Agents nabbed him and whisked him off to the Untied States to stand trial on drug related charges.
DEA agents arrested Morgan at Piarco International Airport shortly after noon on Friday, while he was an in transit passenger. He was returning to Guyana from Panama .
Soon after his arrest, the lawyers met with the Trinidad Police and the DEA agents and attempted to secure their agreement that they would not smuggle Morgan out of the country without exhausting due legal process.
One of the lawyers, Joseph Singh, said that Morgan's case is markedly different from Khan's. He said that Khan was refused entry by the Trinidad Immigration authorities and was therefore not legally in the country.
Morgan, on the other hand, was legally admitted and was therefore under the jurisdiction of the country. He would have to be taken to court on a formal extradition request, Singh said.
This request would have to be heard in a court where it could be challenged.
Yesterday, the lawyers said that Morgan would be taken to court tomorrow and that they were going to seek a writ of habeas corpus. They said that they were also going to make an application for bail.
Mr Singh said that Morgan was being held on a provisional arrest warrant and that the lawyers were going to challenge the provisional warrant. He said that such a warrant means that the United States has not completed all the paper work for the extradition.
Under this warrant Morgan could be held for no more than 60 days but the Trinidad authorities would have to present him in court every 10 days. If at the end of the 60 days the United States does not submit all the necessary paper work then the Trinidad police would have no option but to release him.
Asked to comment on the 1996 treaty entered into between the then Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Basdeo Panday and US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Mr Singh said that under the previous treaty that was entered into between the United States and Britain in 1931, the United States would have been required to establish a prima facie case against Morgan. Under the present treaty all the United Stares has to do is to show probable cause.
Attorney Randy Deepu, who is also representing Morgan, said that he was one of the architects of the 1996 treaty that Panday and Christopher signed. He said that he represented the United States on the drafting panel and in the ensuing years, helped expedite extradition proceedings on behalf of the United States .
He said that from all appearances his previous involvement has come back to haunt him. He added that there is an existing treaty between Guyana and the United States of America but from all appearances the US is not prepared to use that treaty to seek people out of Guyana , choosing instead, to play “Mickey Mouse games” using the Trinidad and Tobago treaty.
Mr Deepu, like Mr Singh, said that any move to smuggle Morgan out of Trinidad and Tobago would be vigorously opposed. He said that the US must produce a proper warrant before any formal legal proceedings could begin.
One Trinidad newspaper reported that Morgan was a victim of the security arrangements put in place for Cricket World Cup and the access to Interpol records.
However, the lawyers are of the view that Morgan's arrest stemmed from the arrangement that exists between the Caribbean countries and the United States where information on terrorists and other criminals are shared with Homeland Security in the US .
They said that the fact that Trinidad and Tobago had to send its flight manifest to Homeland Security caused the American authorities to hurry up and send a warrant to Trinidad . That warrant arrived in Trinidad on Thursday. Morgan was arrested on Friday.
The Eastern District of the United States had secured an indictment against Morgan on December 11, last year. The courts cited Morgan on three counts of drug possession and drug distribution in the United States .
Meanwhile, in Trinidad , Morgan's lawyers say that they are paying regular visits to the Central Police Station where Morgan is being detained.
They said that at tomorrow's court appearance they are going to seek protection from the court to avoid Morgan being smuggled out of the country.