Rhett Fuller is in the Hattieville Prison tonight; This was the dramatic scene as he left the Court of Appeals in police custody this afternoon.
Janelle Chanona,
Rhett, so many people have been supporting you all in this bid. What would you like to say to them?
Rhett Fuller,
“Nothing…not at this point. Thanks.”
That’s what unfolded after the Justices of the Court of Appeal refused Fuller’s application dismiss an extradition request made by the U.S. Government. So, as we said, Fuller is behind bars at the Hattieville Prison tonight but early next week his attorney, Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay will apply for bail on his client’s behalf. That’s because in addition to making a direct plea to Minister of Foreign Affairs Sedi Elrington, Fuller is already planning to take his case to the Privy Council. Courtenay explained.
Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for Rhett Fuller
“I am very disappointed in the result. On a personal level I think Mr. Fuller has lived through hell for the last twenty years and there have been these allegations against him, this request. Unfortunately the prejudice and the abuse, I think the court feels they don’t have jurisdiction to hear it. Now we can make those representations to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for him to make a decision as to whether he is going to send a Belizean to the United States for trial in the circumstances which exist in respect of Rhett. I think it is very important for us to remember that the basis of this entire request for extradition by the United States is based on a lie. They lied to the Minister when they initiated these proceedings against Mr. Fuller and we will be making that point to the Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as the
prejudice and oppression that has been caused to him as a result of these very long and extended proceedings.”
Janelle Chanona,
“Mr. Courtenay you also made the statement in court during this application that the Minister and the Attorney General are one and the same person. The Attorney General in this session is representing the US government and you asked the question how fair is that.
Eamon Courtenay,
“Yeah well the point of the matter is when the law designates a particular office holder to make a decision, there is nobody else for us to go to. We hope that Minister Elrington will be able to divorce himself from the fact that his office is representing the United States of America and understand that the discretion that he has to make is a discretion that balances the national interest on one hand and on the other hand the interest of Mr. Fuller who is at this stage still innocent. Despite all that has happened, Mr. Fuller is still innocent.
Certainly he has been prejudiced. As I indicated on the last occasion, who remembers what they were doing twenty years ago. How is he going to find the witnesses who were represent, the people who were involved, people who could give an explanation for anything in relation to this offense. He has not been in that country for 20 years. I think that it must be obvious to people that it is just unfair to at this point in time to subject someone to something like this.
A person who I would describe as perhaps the world’s greatest extradition lawyer, Ed Fitzgerald, QC, has already said that he is going to take up the appeal. We also have Julian Knolls from Matrix Chambers, in fact Julian has written books on extradition. I have briefed these guys on this case and they were actually trying to get down here to be a part of the team for the appeal but they had conflicts there. But we’re going to go the Privy Council with this so the fight has just begun.
We are not saying that if he is wanted for an offense that he shouldn’t go. What we’re saying is that so much time has passed that what has happened is that the whole thing has become prejudicial to him and oppressive and we have put before the court cases, and I think it is important people understand that it is not the court is unsympathetic to all those circumstances, but what I was trying to do to say to the court is that they should make new law because the cases that Miss Banner relied on and quite properly so said that the matters I am talking about should not be before the court but should be before the Minister. Well now we go before the Minister.
Again people are concerned that the Americans have brought agents here already to take him out. I am certain that is not going to happen. We have a letter already from a former Minister of Foreign Affairs who had written when he was in office that there would be no surrender of Mr. Fuller until proceedings are complete and the proceedings are not complete. So he cannot be spirited out of here by any American agents and I sincerely hope the Americans don’t try that.”
According to Courtenay, in the appeal to Minister of Foreign Affairs he will highlight that before the US Government made the extradition request, agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency tried to get Fuller to participate in a sting operation in Belize and then there is also the allegation that a US official planted an UZI machine gun on him. That charge was subsequently dismissed against Fuller. Fuller is wanted in the United States to stand trial for the murder of Larry Miller, which occurred in Miami in 1990. Efforts to extradite him started in 1998.
And while Rhett Fuller’s misfortune is the headline, there was more major news coming out of the Court Of Appeal today and we’ll have that for you a little later.
