DEFENCE ATTORNEYS representing Montego Bay businessmen Donovan Williams and Leebert Ramcharan had partial success in their attempt to have extradition requests by the United States against the men denied on Friday in the Corporate Area Criminal Court.
The charge of conspiracy to import cocaine into the U.S. was dropped after the prosecution conceded that there was insufficient evidence to justify the charge when challenged by the defence as to the validity of the charges brought against the men.
Antoinette Williams, the wife of Donovan Williams, in her testimony before the hearings yesterday, stated that her husband was in possession of two passports and a United States visa which was issued to him in August 2003.
Frank Phipps, Q.C., the lead attorney representing Williams, in his attempt to discredit the charges against his client, pointed out to the court that by virtue of his client obtaining a U.S. visa in August, he could not have been seen as a threat by U.S. authorities which are now seeking his extradition on drug-related activities allegedly carried out between the period 1998 and 2004.
Both Williams and Ramcharan were charged with conspiracy to import narcotics into the U.S. between 1998 and 2004, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and attempting to import drugs into the U.S.
Mr. Phipps, in strengthening his arguments, pointed out further that the testimony submitted to the court by two witnesses identified as Alexander Young and the other only as "confidential informant", were almost identical and could not be accepted as credible accounts. He asserted that the testimonies by the two witnesses appeared to have been written by the same person.
During hearings on Thursday, the "confidential informant" testimony pointed to him knowing Ramcharan. Lord Anthony Gifford, the lead attorney representing Ramcharan described as "fishy" testimonies from the two witnesses which stated that they both referred to his client as "Father". In the affidavits bearing the testimonies, the witnesses claimed to have travelled with Ramcharan to Colombia where they received small parcels of cocaine from him. They also stated that on one occasion they were instructed to deliver 100 kilograms of cocaine to Ramcharan.
"Something is fishy about how Young incorporates into evidence verbatim, the account of the confidential source," Lord Gifford asserted.
