The Christie administration has come under heavy fire since it surrendered the accused drug kingpin to United States officials exactly a month ago.
Speaking to the House during a debate on the Bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of the National Accreditation and Equivalency Council of The Bahamas, Former Attorney General Wells said: “My friends here, your final court of appeal in your system has made a decision, and under the system of precedent, there is nothing [that] could be done for him anymore. No judge could have let him go.
“And any lawyer who [goes] and [puts] an application before the courts and [wants to] argue it, that is an abuse of the system and it should not be allowed. And I agree with the government; not that I have anything against Ninety. But our duty [is] to the system. [Upholding] the integrity of the system is paramount.”
The Independent MP for Bamboo Town added: “And that is what I believe newspapers ought to be doing, educating their people and the citizens of this country [instead of] looking for political points [and looking] to score a cheap political point on one side, the PLP or FNM or otherwise.”
Knowles was assigned a public defendant during his third appearance in a US Southern District Court last Tuesday.
It emerged during the hearing, that the Federal Public Defender’s Office had represented Brian Bethel, a witness the US Government plans to have testify against Knowles. Assistant Federal Public Defender, Stewart Abrams, was therefore forced to step aside as counsel.
Attorney Stephen White was appointed as Knowles’ new public defender but is unlikely to be retained since Magistrate Edwin Torres approved a motion for Knowles’s arraignment and pretrial detention to be adjourned to October 3, while his family seeks private representation.
It has not been determined whether Knowles, who had fought a six-year battle against extradition before being surrendered, will face charges stemming from one or two indictments. The US government had sought to bring charges stemming from two indictments, but Knowles contends that he was extradited on and is required to answer one set of charges. Mr Abrams told The Nassau Guardian last week that the Federal Public Defender’s Office believes he should answer only one set of charges.
The Bahamas Bar Council said two weeks ago that after preliminary investigations into the case, it was of the view that the government sanctions were in violation of the extradition treaty between The Bahamas and the United Sates. Barring a legal explanation from the government, Mr Munroe said it appeared Knowles had not been given the protection due to everyone who pledges allegiance to the State. In that case, he said that Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, (who authorized the surrender) and Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson, ( who is said to have advised him to do so,) must resign.
Damian Gomez, the out-going Government Senator who is resigning in order to accept an appointment to the Supreme Court, has also criticized the Christie Administration over Knowles’ extradition. Citing Guyana, Mr Gomez said he had seen first hand what happened to countries when the recognition of human rights was abandoned for political expediency and vowed not to let the same thing happen in The Bahamas.
By: Raymond Kongwa, The Nassau Guardian
