Attorneys for the two Akasha brothers and another defendant are
questioning whether a US court has jurisdiction to put them on trial on
drug-trafficking charges.
The defence
lawyers suggested in a New York courtroom on Friday that the US may not
have the right to prosecute the three men because they were summarily
expelled from Kenya a year ago rather than being formally extradited.
EJECTED
“I
don't think citizens of Kenya can be (lawfully) expelled,” Christopher
Cassar, an attorney for Baktash Akasha, told the US federal judge
hearing the case.
Mr Cassar contended
following a court hearing last month that his client had been
“abducted” from Kenya. He said the US thus has no standing to conduct a
trial that is now tentatively scheduled to begin in October.
Baktash
and Ibrahim Akasha, along with Pakistani national Gulam Hussein and
Indian national Vijaygiri Goswami, have been charged by US prosecutors
with conspiring to smuggle 98 kilogrammes of heroin into the United
States from Kenya.
The four suspects could be sentenced to life in prison in the US if convicted on those charges.
Mr
Cassar and Dawn Marcella Cardi, an attorney for Ibrahim Akasha, said in
court on Friday that they want US prosecutors to produce an official
Kenyan government order for the defendants' expulsion.
US
government attorneys had previously indicated that such a document does
exist, Mr Cassar and Ms Cardi said in an interview following Friday's
court hearing.
But prosecutor Patrick
Egan said on Friday he does not know whether a Kenyan expulsion order
had been issued prior to the four men's deportation to the US in January
of last year.
Mr Egan did
acknowledge that the defendants had been removed from Kenya even though a
Kenyan court had not ruled on a pending US request for their
extradition.
“We have represented in past that defendants were expelled,” Mr Egan told the court. “That's not a mystery.”
He added: “Whether Kenya can or cannot expel its citizens doesn't have bearing on this case.”
Presiding
Judge Victor Marrero ruled that the prosecution and the defence should
submit arguments pertaining to the possible expulsion order and, if it
exists, whether the defendants should have access to it.
The judge is likely to rule on this issue in April.
US EXTRADITION REQUEST
The
Akasha brothers, along with Mr Hussein and Mr Goswami, were seized by
Kenyan authorities in January of last year prior to a scheduled court
hearing on the US extradition request. US Drug Enforcement Agency
officials then took custody of the four accused men and flew with them
on a charter flight to New York.
They have been held in detention centres in New York for the past 13 months.
Additional
charges of bribery and brandishing of firearms in Kenya were filed by
US prosecutors in December. The Akashas and Mr Hussein pleaded not
guilty to those charges last month.
Mr
Goswami was not present for the court session in January. Mr Cassar,
the attorney for Baktash Akasha, said during that hearing that Mr
Goswami has agreed to cooperate with US prosecutors — presumably in
exchange for a guilty plea and a lesser sentence.
The
lawyer representing the US government declined on that occasion to
confirm or deny whether Mr Goswami had entered into a plea deal with
prosecutors.
BRIBERY CLAIMS
Ms
Cardi, the attorney for Ibrahim Akasha, said on Friday that defence
lawyers will be asking prosecutors to reveal the names and titles of
those Kenyans who were allegedly bribed in connection with this case.
She
added that defence attorneys must be given the opportunity to speak
with those Kenyans as well as with any witnesses US prosecutors intend
to call in regard to the bribery and firearms allegations.
Mr
Hussein, a 62-year-old said in court papers to go under the alias “Old
Man,” appeared haggard as he was led into the courtroom in shackles on
Friday.
The Akasha brothers, also
bound in shackles and wearing prison garb, seemed in good spirits.
Baktash, 41, is portly and balding; his 29-year-old brother Ibrahim is
shorter and more trim.
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