FUGITIVE Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke yesterday failed in his Supreme Court bid to get hounding security forces off his back. The court threw out Coke’s application for a Judicial Review of the decision to begin extradition proceedings against him, ending speculation over the potential turmoil had he won.
Had leave been granted, there would have been a stay of the warrant issued for Coke’s arrest on May 18, after Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne gave the authority to start extradition proceedings against the former Tivoli Gardens strongman, who is wanted in the United States on drugs and gun-trafficking charges.
Chief Justice Zaila McCalla, who heard the application, said that in order for Coke to make a request for Judicial Review, a case for his extradition to the United States would have to first be made out in the Resident Magistrate’s court.
“In accordance with the procedure laid down in the Extradition Act, on apprehension or surrender of the applicant (Coke), he would be taken before a Resident Magistrate’s court for a hearing. If a prima facie case for his extradition is made out, the resident magistrate is required to advise him of his right to apply for habeas corpus within 15 days, to enable the matter to be brought before the Supreme Court,” McCalla wrote in her 22-page opinion.
The ruling comes as members of the security forces intensify their efforts to apprehend the former West Kingston area leader.
Coke has been on the run since May 24 when the security forces raided the barricaded community of Tivoli Gardens to execute the warrant and restore law and order to the area, following unprovoked attacks on security personnel from gunmen loyal to Coke.
Police said that 73 civilians and a member of the Jamaica Defence Force were killed during the three-day incursion into the garrison enclave, which is the heart of Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s West Kingston constituency.
More than 50 civilians and security personnel were injured and 74 assorted weapons and 13,000 rounds of ammunition recovered, police said.
McCalla’s ruling is in sync with arguments put forward last week by Lightbourne, who was the first respondent on Coke’s application, and second respondent Paula Llewellyn, the director of public prosecutions, who represents the US in extradition matters in the Jamaican courts.
The chief justice said in her ruling that had Coke subjected himself to the jurisdiction of the court he would have been able to avail himself of alternative remedies under the Extradition Act, other than applying for Judicial Review.
In applying for the Judicial Review, Coke’s lawyer cited Lightbourne’s nine-month refusal to sign the extradition request and her taking the matter to court herself to block the process, before making an about-turn under public pressure.
Don Foote, who appeared along with attorney Paul Beswick, said that the ruling would be appealed.
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