Court to hear motion August 8 on Extradition Act
ADRIAN Armstrong, the Montego Bay-based cambio dealer whose attorneys filed a constitutional motion on behalf of their client in the Supreme Court against the attorney-general and the director of public prosecutions (DPP), had his extradition hearing in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court postponed until September 16 to allow the Supreme Court to hear the motion on August 9.
He will remain remanded in custody until the Supreme Court hearing.
Armstrong is wanted by the United States District Court in Puerto Rico for money laundering and conspiracy charges, but his lawyers Jackie Samuels-Brown and Jade Hollis, intend to argue that the Extradition Act violates sections of the constitution which say that the state cannot deprive a man of his liberty without just cause.
The lawyers are also claiming that the Extradition Act is a breach of Armstrong’s right to a fair trial, liberty and freedom of movement.
The cambio dealer was offered bail twice by the court but was on each occasion re-arrested by narcotics police.
Armstrong has maintained his innocence since he was arrested by police over a year ago at a restaurant in Montego Bay.
A court request that the United States authorities forward audio-tapes with conversations involving Armstrong and other persons was denied by the requesting state.
Meanwhile, Presley Bingham, one of six men positively identified to DEA agents as co-conspirators of a local drugs cartel by convicted drug dealer, Delroy ‘Sky Blue’ Williams was yesterday remanded in custody until August 24.
Five of the men pointed out by ‘Sky Blue’ – his two uncles, Robroy and Glenford Williams, Norris ‘Dedo’ Nembhard, Vivian ‘Jungo’ Dalley and Columbian national, Miguel Louis Avila Arias – were ordered extradited last month and have since appealed the rulings by filing writs of habeas corpus in the Supreme Court.
‘Sky Blue’ was held at sea in a go fast boat loaded with 1,050 kilograms of cocaine in May 2002 by the US Coast Guard. He was taken to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba before being transported to the United States where he was sentenced for drug trafficking. He told the US authorities that he was transporting the contraband for his uncle, Robroy Williams, who headed the drug smuggling operation.