FORMER Tivoli Gardens don Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke now faces a nervous wait after Chief Justice Zaila McCalla yesterday reserved her decision on an application for a judicial review of the justice minister’s decision to proceed with the extradition case against him.
Lawyers for Coke on Wednesday made submissions in-chambers before McCalla, challenging Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne’s decision, which followed a nine-month period in which the governing Jamaica Labour Party vigorously challenged the August 2009 extradition request by the United States.
Coke’s legal team has also asked for a stay of the warrant for his arrest, which caused him to go into hiding.
Coke is wanted in the United States on drug- and gun-trafficking charges.
But lawyers for the justice minister and Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn, who represents the requesting state, on Wednesday opposed Coke’s application, arguing that the extradition proceedings should run its course. The lawyers said that the granting of Judicial Review at this time would be premature.
Yesterday, Coke’s lawyers responded to the opposing arguments before the matter was adjourned to a date “as soon as possible”.
Coke has been on the run since last week’s joint police/military operation in Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston, to apprehend him and to restore order within the community after gunmen mounted booby-trapped barricades at entrances to the community and launched deadly attacks on the security forces.
The barricades started going up after the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court issued a warrant for Coke’s arrest on May 18, a day after Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced, after public pressure, that extradition proceeding would be brought against the alleged drug kingpin.
Golding had went as far as authorising the hiring of US law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to lobby Washington during its stand-off with Kingston over the extradition request. The move resulted in public outrage and calls for Golding’s resignation.
The case before the Supreme Court does not prevent the police from executing the arrest warrant against Coke, who has managed to elude several attempts by the lawmen to arrest him.
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