BROTHERS Roger and Romeo Folkes were yesterday ordered extradited to the United States where they are to face trial on drug-trafficking charges. The order was made by Magistrate Stephanie Jackson-Haisley in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court where the men, who both live in Kingston, had been fighting the request for their extradition since being arrested last year June.

In arriving at her decision, Jackson-Haisley said she was satisfied that a prima facie case had been made out against the brothers.

But following the ruling, attorney Tom Tavares-Finson, while not knocking the magistrate, called for a review of certain aspects of the Extradition Treaty which, he said, has done “grave injustice to Jamaicans”.

“The magistrate acted within the terms of her limited jurisdiction. This situation demonstrates the need for us to review the present Extradition Treaty as it stands,” said Tavares-Finson, who appeared for the brothers and who also represents Tivoli Gardens businessman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke — the subject of another contentious extradition request. “What I had requested during the hearing most people would regard as very, very basic rights — that is to say, the right to know who your accuser is and to know the terms upon which they have entered into arrangement to give evidence against you.”

Added the attorney: “A grave injustice is being done to Jamaicans.”

Tavares-Finson, said he will be taking the fight against the extradition order to the Supreme Court. The brothers have 15 days within which to file papers with the High Court in their bid for freedom. Should the High Court uphold the magistrate’s decision, the men have the option of going to the Court of Appeal and can also take the matter to the London-based Privy Council, the island’s highest court of appeal, on a Constitutional point.

The order to have the brothers extradited is sure to add fuel to the current public debate over the apparent procrastination on the part of Prime Minister Bruce Golding to set the ball rolling on last August’s request by the US for the extradition of Coke, a resident of Tivoli Gardens and staunch supporter of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party.

The issue has soured relations between Washington and Kingston.

Last week, Golding, during his call-in radio programme Jamaica House Live, said he would be seeking a declaration from the Supreme Court as to whether or not Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne acted correctly in not giving the go-ahead for extradition proceedings to be brought against Coke, who is wanted in the US on drug- and gun-running charges.

The Jamaican Government has argued that the evidence submitted by the Americans against Coke was gathered in breach of Jamaican law.

The allegation against the Folkes brothers is that between July 2006 and September 2008 they were members of a transnational smuggling network, which shipped illicit drugs into the US and Great Britain from Jamaica and St Lucia. US prosecutors have described the Folkes as major players in the international drug trade.

Yesterday, Tavares-Finson said the men’s challenge against the extradition request has been hampered as the brothers, one a businessman and the other a student, have no idea who made the allegations of drug-running against them and why. As a result, Tavares-Finson said, the brothers are unable to give proper instructions.

“How is that for a joke?” Tavares-Finson quipped.