He lost his extradition appeal a week ago and was remanded to jail - but Rhett Fuller will be a free man again on Monday. That is because this afternoon Supreme Court Justice Adolph Lucas granted Fuller’s petition for bail. Justice Adolph Lucas released Fuller on a bail of $50,000 plus two sureties in the amount. He also has to report to the police station twice a week and surrender all his travel documents. The application was made by his attorney Eamon Courtenay who told us outside the court that those are the previous conditions under which Fuller was out on bail.
Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for Rhett Fuller
“Well I think the biggest argument in favour of Mr. Fuller is that he was admitted to bail twice before by the Chief Justice previously and on both occasions he adhered to all the conditions, reported to court at each adjournment, and did not attempt to flee. And so we said to Mr. Justice Lucas that Mr. Fuller has a track record in adhering to bail conditions and urged him to do so.
The second point we made was that the conditions are quite onerous; $50,000 plus two sureties plus reporting to the police twice per week and in addition to that he has to surrender all his travel documents. So I think that all in all the judge was satisfied that the evidence before him was sufficient to cause him to grant Mr. Fuller bail.”
Keith Swift,
When will he actually be released on that bail?
Eamon Courtenay,
“Well you know how these things are. It is a lot of paper work. My learned friend Mr. Palacio says he is going to be in Belize City today for us to approve the order, the order that the judge just made. So I would hope that by Monday we would be able to finish the paper work.”
Keith Swift,
Now what is Mr. Fuller’s next legal move?
Eamon Courtenay,
“Well as you know first of all he has his appeal to the Privy Council. We are settling the papers for that but we need the leave of the Court of Appeal for that so we have to wait until June. We will file the papers next week but we will have to wait until June for the Court of Appeal to give us leave to go to the Privy Council and then of course he still has his representations to be made to the Minister.”
The United States Government was represented by Crown Counsel Phillip Palacio who did not object to bail. As we reported – the Court of Appeal ruled against Fuller on Friday. Courtenay expects to be granted leave to apply to the Privy Council in June. He told us previously that the world famous extradition lawyer Ed Fitzgerald will be part of Fuller’s legal team. Fuller again is wanted in the United States for a murder which occurred in Orlando Florida in 1990. He has been fighting extradition since the request was first made in 1998.
