Defence attorney: Amended Act does not apply

DEFENCE attorney Pamela Elder SC yesterday submitted that the amendment to the Extradition Act contravened several of the fundamental human rights of her client. Elder was making submissions before Senior Magistrate Jo-Anne Connor at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court against a request by the United States of America to extradite her client, Clive Lancelot Small. Small, also known as Olive Enyahooma-El, is wanted in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where it is alleged that on May 30, 2001, he attempted to import 60 AK-47 rifles and ten Mac-10 machine guns with silencers into Trinidad, contrary to the laws of the United States.

The decision on whether or not her submission was “frivolous and vexatious,” Elder said, was in the hands of the magistrate. If the magistrate ruled in her favour, the defence attorney said, the case should then be referred to the High Court. Elder had earlier submitted that the amendment to the Extradition Act was not applicable to “this” case. She said because the amended Act was new, there was no case law in our jurisdiction for it. However, Elder said that parts of the Canadian Extradition Act of 1999, on which our amendment Act was based, shed some light on the area of retrospectiveness. This section, she said, applied to the conduct of a person, and not to the offences that were committed prior to its passage.

In response to Elder’s submissions, attorney for the requesting state Douglas Mendes SC said the defence attorney was limiting the application of the Act. The offences, he said, were extraditable even though the offences allegedly occurred prior to the amendment. According to Mendes, the offences satisfied the three conditions of the amended Act under which extraditable offences fell. Elder’s “presumption” against retroactivity, he said, did not apply. The fact that Small was “deprived of his freedom” was no indication that he was being punished for offences for which he was not convicted, Mendes said. Elder will respond to Mendes’ arguments on Monday.