Lawyers wrangle over entrapment issue

IF DEFENCE attorney Pamela Elder SC is correct in her submission of abuse of power relative to entrapment, then all the evidence pertaining to the extradition of Jamaat-Al-Muslimeen member Lancelot Small to the United States of America, including tape recordings, will have to be presented to the judge presiding over the matter. This was, as described by Elder, “the unprecedented claim” of attorney for the requesting state, Douglas Mendes SC. Small, 69, also known as Olive Enyahooma-El, is wanted in the United States to face charges relating to conspiracy to possess 60 AK-47 rifles, ten MAC-10 weapons and ten silencers. Senior Magistrate Joanne Connor had ordered his extradition to the US on September 21 to face the grand jury charges, and his attorney had filed a writ of habeas corpus on the afternoon of October 4.

Addressing Justice Rajendra Narine at the Port-of-Spain Fourth Civil Court yesterday, Mendes said the point of abuse of process of the court to extradite the fugitive because he was trapped into the offence was not for the local court to decide, but for the trial judge in the US. He added however that if the defence attorney’s submission of abuse of process was correct, and the trial judge was asked to make a ruling, the court would need to have all the evidence that bears on the submission of entrapment, including the alleged tape recordings. Elder argued that Small was entitled to make an abuse of process submission based on the evidence at the preliminary inquiry. “Maybe he has authorities to support his unprecedented claim to submit further evidence,” Elder contended, adding that there were several other issues to be addressed besides the abuse of process issue.

The defence attorney then made an application for her client to be present at the next hearing on October 21 and that the bundle of documents submitted to Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls for the issuance of the first provisional warrant of arrest for her client be made available. These documents, she said, would be relevant to her submission of abuse of process and admissibility of evidence relative to certification and authenticity. In response to questions by Narine of the relevance of “certification and authenticity,” Elder reminded the court that during the preliminary inquiry before McNicolls, attorney David West, who is also representing the requesting state, had taken a second bundle to the US to be certified.  The first had been in the possession of the Chief Magistrate. Narine said he would issue a writ to have Small present at the next hearing and would make a request to McNicolls to have the bundle of documents available.