Jack Warner has his day in court on Wednesday. Again. The US wants him extradited to face 29 money laundering, fraud, conspiracy and other charges. Jack won't be on any plane come Thursday morning. At most, the court will set the date for a full hearing.
Extradition should be quick and easy–the requesting country just has to show there's a case to answer, not prove guilt. That can take as little as six months. But a stubborn defendant with a bunch of lawyers and a healthy bank account can spin out the process for years, with judicial reviews and appeals to the Privy Council.
Jack's clock has been running six months, since May. In September, his attorneys asked for time to study the documents. They were given more than two months. Jack turns 73 in January. If his legal team keep things ticking slow enough, they can start arguing that he is too old and doddery to face trial. It's not just Jack. Ish and Steve's extradition request kicked around for five years, before the 2011 ruling that local charges should take precedence. On two occasions, the US had a plane in Puerto Rico, ready and waiting.
The delays aren't just a T&T problem. Indeed, paperwork requirements here are a model of streamlining compared to other Caribbean jurisdictions. In a good year, there may be a dozen extraditions, almost all to the US. The largest group are drug-related; murder, hostage-taking and financial offences are in there too. A few come unstuck. A couple of alleged offenders were unwisely granted bail, then jumped. But Ish and Steve are the only two I can trace whose extraditions were denied by T&T courts.
Regionally, the big one was Jamaica's Christopher "Dudus" Coke, in 2010. Prime Minister Bruce Golding dithered for nine months–a delay which cost more than 70 Jamaican lives. The next year, aftershocks from Dudus ended Bruce's political career. After the battle, Dudus was arrested on his way to surrender. He waived his right to resist extradition; he was less scared of New York justice than sharing the fate of his father, burnt to death in a mystery prison cell fire in 1992.
An enquiry into the Dudus fiasco is now in progress.
The Bahamas has sent no customers to US courts since 2013. That may soon change.
Ten days ago, their appeal court approved extradition of Melvin Maycock, his son Melvin Junior and 12 alleged accomplices to face drug charges. That should end a 12-year legal battle.
But in Belize this month, there has been a huge mess-up.
Remember Allen Stanford? The big scamster now serving a 110-year sentence for US$7 billion or more in Antigua-based frauds? David Nanes Schnitzer, former president of Stanford Group Mexico, was held in the aptly named Pirate's Bar in San Pedro on November 3, in a joint operation by US Marshals, local police and Interpol. He is allegedly responsible for US$42 million in fraud. He had been in Belize for five years. Using the name David Banes, he fraudulently obtained a Belizean passport, two driver's licences, a social security card, a boat master's licence and voter ID. When held, he was charged only with the false driver's license. The extradition paperwork from Mexico had yet to come through.
On November 18 the cancellation of his Belizean passport was published in the official gazette.
Two days later, a judge freed him on bail of just US$5,000. Schnitzer was told to report to the San Pedro police station twice a week. He has yet to show.
Some high-profile suspects have been nabbed while travelling. Dino Bouterse, son of Suriname's president Desi Bouterse, was held in Panama in 2013, on terrorism and cocaine charges. He is serving a 16-year sentence in New York.
Two nephews-in-law of Venezuela's president Nicol�s Maduro were held in Haiti on November 10. They too are now in New York, charged with conspiracy to smuggle 360 kilos of coke.
In Europe, an EU arrest warrant allows fast cross-border transfer of suspects. A similar Caricom arrangement is proposed–but only T&T has signed up. In the world of Isis, it's time for international procedures which send suspects for trial in weeks, not decades.