By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterA DECISION is to be made today by the Full Court as to whether an affidavit given by an American professor, on behalf of jailed Montego Bay businessman Leebert Ramcharan, should be admitted in court.
University of Miami Professor Bruce Winick filed an affidavit on October 13, suggesting that Ramcharan could not get a fair trial in the United States because of a prejudicial blunder on the part of the Bush administration.
He cited the administration's labelling of Ramcharan as a 'drug kingpin' as a solid enough reason why he has very little if any chance of a fair hearing in an American court. Professor Winick's affidavit was served on the Attorney-General on October 14.
Ramcharan, who was ordered extradited in June this year to face drug charges in the United States, has been fighting for his freedom on the grounds that there have been serious breaches of the Extradition Act by U.S. authorities.
OBJECTION
At the Supreme Court yesterday, attorneys-at-law Patrick Foster, Annaliesa Lindsay and Carlene Larmond from the Attorney-General's Department, took objection to Winick's affidavit, arguing that the document was not admissible as it did not comply with the rules of the court.
They said the fact that the document pointed to the professor being visually impaired was enough to question whether it was read back to him or whether he had acknowledged the affidavit to be an accurate statement.
Crown Counsel, Georgiana Fraser, from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the lawyers from the Attorney-General's Department, submitted that they had a right to cross-examine Professor Winick.
Lord Anthony Gifford, who is representing Ramcharan, submitted that the affidavit could be sent to Professor Winick for him to comply with the objections raised by the Government lawyers .
Ramcharan is also relying on the case of Bahamian national Samuel Knowles, who was freed by Justice Hugh Small in the Bahamian Supreme Court in June this year, on the grounds that he would not get a fair trial if he was extradited because of his designation as a 'drug kingpin'.
Ramcharan's application is being heard by the Full Court comprising Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe, Justice Basil Reid and Justice Marva McIntosh. He is contending that his designation as a 'drug kingpin' was not made in good faith in the interest of justice but in a manner calculated to deny him a fair trial.
'DRUG KINGPINS'
On June 1, U.S. President George W. Bush designated Ramcharan and Norris 'Deedo' Nembhard, another Jamaican whose extradition is also being sought, as 'drug kingpins' under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The Jamaicans were among 10 persons and organisations identified by Bush as drug traffickers and against whom sanctions will be imposed according to the powers vested under the Act.
