ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Anthony Armstrong has told the Court of Appeal that it has no jurisdiction to grant a stay of execution that is being requested by former head of the Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC) Leroy King.
King, through his attorney Dane Hamilton QC, is seeking to have the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal stay a decision of High Court judge Justice Mario Michel.
Justice Michel on February 2 this year upheld a magistrate’s decision to commit King to be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges.
The former FSRC boss was committed on 11 of the 21 counts of wire, mail and securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering among others.
Hamilton, in addressing the issue before the three-panel Court of Appeal Justices – Chief Justice Hugh Rawlins, and Justices of Appeal Janice Pereira and Paul Webster, said King has very good grounds of appeal.
Hamilton told the court that his case was purely a point of law as to whether the Larceny Act and perverting the course of justice charge have extraterritorial effect. He claims that they do not.
The attorney said he does not wish for it to be a situation in which the minister of external affairs (Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer) makes the order for King’s extradition while an appeal is pending.
Hamilton said he was not seeking to stay the decision-making, but the order of the court, until the appeal is heard. According to the attorney, he does not want a situation to arise where the appeal has not been heard and King still somehow finds himself in the US facing a trial, as has happened in the past.
The DPP in his response told the court that Hamilton’s application for a stay of Justice Michel’s decision is without jurisdiction.
According to the DPP, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Act CAP 103, Section 31 Subsection 2, Subsection A does not permit appeal of decisions made in extradition proceedings.
Armstrong, who sees King’s application as an abuse of the process, told the Court of Appeal that King made full-length arguments before Justice Michel who, having heard all sides, denied his application for habeas corpus and to quash the decision of former Chief Magistrate Ivan Walters to commit him for extradition.
“There is no jurisdiction of the court to grant any such stay in these matters. King could not be extradited when a writ of habeas corpus was filed on his behalf. The applicant (King) does not have an entrenched right of appeal. In some cases the leave of the court must be sought,” Armstrong argued.
In citing several legal authorities to support his arguments, including one rendered by Sir Vincent Floissac, the DPP said that if the minister of external affairs rules that King be extradited, he (King) has other redress. Armstrong said the former FSRC head can make application for judicial review.
“It is up to him (King) if he seeks so to do. The Act makes provisions if and when he is committed by a magistrate, he can file for habeas corpus, which he did. He has exhausted his redress (at this stage). To grant the stay will create a new avenue of redress not contemplated nor made for by Parliament.
“To go against this would be contrary to two previous decisions given in this court. He (King) has other remedies available to him,” Armstrong said.
The three-panel Court of Appeal judges has asked for the pleadings of the proceedings in order to make a proper determination of the matter. Both attorneys are also to provide the necessary submissions for the court’s consideration.
The matter has been adjourned until tomorrow.
(More in today’s Daily OBSERVER)
