The seven men fighting extradition to the United States to face drug charges will have to wait until February 28 to learn if their constitutional rights were violated.
Trevor Roberts, Sheldon Moore, Brian and Lynden Deal, Devroy Moss, Shanto Curry and Gordon Newbold appeared before Magistrate Carolita Bethel on Monday, expecting a report from the Chief Justice on a number of constitutional infringement issues.
According to the Magistrate Bethel, Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall informed her that he had assigned a Supreme Court judge to the case and that a report would be ready for review within 30 days.
She remanded the men to Her Majesty’s Prison until then.
The defence attorneys, Paul Moss, Maurice Glinton and Jerome Roberts, are challenging the Listening Devices Act, which gives the Commissioner of Police the authority to permit recordings of private conversations.
They are also questioning the validity of the men’s arrest, based on the stipulations in the search warrants.
Magistrate Bethel ruled earlier this month that the telephone recordings of the seven men were admissible as evidence, shooting down arguments to the contrary by the men’s attorneys.
An earlier ruling of the Supreme Court had determined that the extradition treaty between the Bahamas and The United States was null and void.
But that was overturned by the court of appeal with lawyers attempting to have the Privy Council grant a stay of the Appellate court’s decision.
By: Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal
