High Court asked to overturn minister’s extradition authority amid claims PPP targeted Mohameds

Last Updated on Wednesday, 24 December 2025, 23:45 by Writer

Billionaire gold traders Azruddin Mohamed and his father, Nazar “Shell” Mohamed want the High Court to quash home affairs minister Oneidge Walrond’s issuance of the authority to proceed (ATP) with committal proceedings for their extradition to the United States to face trial for financial crimes because they were politically targeted by the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC).

“Therefore, the decision to issue the ATP cannot stand and ought to be quashed. The ATP is a nullity on account of the Minister being automatically disqualified from issuing it. Further, the warrants issued for the arrest of the Applicants also cannot stand as their very bases are the ATP which initiated the extradition proceedings,” their lawyers say in court papers seen by Demerara Waves Online News.

The Mohameds contend, among other things that the home affairs minister and the Attorney General Anil Nandlall were parties to bias against them in their public utterances and so the ATP should be aborted.

Through their lawyers, Siand Dhurjon, Roysdale Forde and Damien DaSilva, the Mohameds also cited utterances by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, who is also the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), President Irfaan Ali and Mr Nandlall against their clients. “It is submitted that it is clear that the bias which infected the first and Second named respondents (Ms Walrond and Mr Nandlall) automatically disqualified and rendered void the ATP.

Provided that this is so, then the extradition proceedings brought under the ATP under review must necessarily fail,” the lawyers say in court papers seen by Demerara Waves Online News. The lawyers say that, as a member of the Cabinet, and having been present at a PPPC election campaign rally, Ms Walrond was aware of the bias against the Mohameds.

The lawyers state, on behalf of their clients, that from June 2024 to date that “the leaders at the highest level of the sitting government including but not limited” to Dr Ali, Mr Jagdeo and Mr Nandlall “have publicly expressed hostility, contempt and disdain for the applicants largely on account of their differing political views and associations.”

The Mohameds’ lawyers said the accusations and statements of those three government officials were made illegally in breach of the applicants’ presumption of innocence since they were made by public officeholders at the very highest levels of the State. Such statements prejudice the applicants’ fair trial rights among other rights; the presumption of innocence is one of the elements of a fair trial,” according to the court papers.

The lawyers add that by the trio’s repeated clear and unequivocal public statements and conduct, the leaders at the highest levels of the PPPC government have advanced an unrelenting governmental policy of persecution against the applicants, their businesses and associates.

Not only were the Mohameds cited for having been “outspoken in their fierce political criticism” of the PPPC including Ms Walrond from about June 2024 to date, but the younger Mohamed founded the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) political party that won 12 National Assembly seats in the September 1 general and regional elections.

The High Court was also told that the home affairs minister had a personal interest in the outcome of her decision to issue the ATP because if the Mohameds are extradited she and/her political association stand to benefit from suppression of the Mohameds’ dissent and “their widely promoted political opinions adverse to her party”.

The Mohameds said Ms Walrond was obliged to issue the ATP for fear that she would have been condemned or attacked by the PPPC.

Further, the applicants believed that the extradition of the younger Mohamed would prevent him from sitting in the National Assembly, becoming the main opposition leader and contesting against the PPPC if the proceedings or a sentence in the US lasts more than five years.