Balram Balo Maharaj murder case

TWO SOLDIERS and three civilians were yesterday served with provisional warrants for their extradition to Washington DC to face two charges of keeping US citizen Balram “Balo” Maharaj hostage.

It is an offence in the United States to keep a citizen or national of that country hostage in and out of the US. If taken to the US and convicted, they face death or life imprisonment.

The wanted men are Sgt Leon Nurse, Private Ricardo De Four, Kevon Demerieux, Zion Clarke, and David Suchit. Nurse, De Four, Demerieux, and Clarke were among ten persons charged earlier this year with the murder of United States war veteran Maharaj.

Suchit was arrested yesterday morning and brought before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court. Suchit looked bewildered when Mc Nicolls read the charges to him.

“Read that again, what they say I do?” he asked. The chief magistrate read the two charges to the five. They are charged with conspiracy to commit hostage-taking resulting in death, and hostage-taking resulting in death, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1203 (a).

Title 18 states, “Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure, or to continue to detain another person in order to compel a third person or a governmental organisation to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the person detained, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be punished by imprisonment for any term of years or for life and, if the death of any person results, shall be punished by death or life imprisonment.”

Maharaj, 62, was kidnapped outside the Samaan Tree Bar in Aranjuez on April 5, 2005. His remains were found in two containers in the Santa Cruz forest on January 9 this year.

Attorney David West, who represents the US Government, said the Grand Jury indictment was handed down on Wednesday morning and he received the request hours later. He asked for 60 days during which he would seek the authority of the Attorney General to proceed with the extradition. Theodore Guerra SC, who represents Nurse, asked for disclosure so he can prepare his defence to contest the allegations. He said the extradition matter was a ploy by the State not to begin the murder case. He said the State has refused to bring to court one of the accused Kevin Nixon.

Another defence attorney Evans Welch said this was a delaying tactic. Israel Khan SC, who is prosecuting the murder inquiry, asked Guerra to be very careful when making allegations against the prosecution. Khan then blurted out that the US wants everybody in the case, saying the five formed the first batch for extradition.

But the defence pleaded for the murder inquiry to start as yesterday was set aside to begin the case. But Khan said the Director of Public Prosecutions was of the view that the murder inquiry should not start until the extradition case was determined.

The chief magistrate reserved his ruling on the application to stay the murder inquiry. The extradition case and the murder inquiry were adjourned to May 5.