Mohameds’ lawyers reject overnight bid by US prosecutors for earlier extradition hearing date

Last Updated on Friday, 9 January 2026, 21:33 by Writer

United States (US) prosecutors overnight formally asked the Magistrates Court to bring forward the extradition hearing date for gold dealers Azruddin and Nazar Mohamed to this month.

The move came less than 24 hours after Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman set February 5 and 6 for the hearing to resume, allowing the defendants time to consider new evidence in the form of a statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugh Todd.

But already, defence attorneys Roysdale Forde, Siand Dhurjon and Damien Da Silva- say they now have iron-clad commitments and cannot agree to a change of dates.

“No explanation has been advanced for Mr Williams KC’s subsequent change of position on this night,” they told the court in a letter.

Prosecutor Williams in a letter to Clerk of the Georgetown Magistrates Court Destiny Woodman, requested that Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman be asked to consider bringing forward the hearing in keeping with her expressed inclination to set an earlier date. “Counsel for the Requesting State (US) have rescheduled their diaries and are now available to appear” on or before January, 20 2026 or the week January 26.

“In the circumstances, and with due respect for the court’s processes, we respectfully ask that Her Worship considers convening, with notice to all parties, to the earliest fixture hearing date that is convenient to all parties and the court’s diary,” Mr Williams said.

Mr Azruddin Mohamed, who is the leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), is yet to be elected in the National Assembly to be recognised as Guyana’s Opposition Leader because House Speaker Manzoor Nadir has so far not called a meeting of the Parliament.

Sources say the government had been considering calling a sitting of the National Assembly on January 19.

Reacting to the request for the extradition hearing to be brought forward, the defence lawyers told the Clerk of the Magistrates Court to inform the Principal Magistrate that they could make it.

In the case of Mr Forde, following Thursday’s hearing, he has “entered into inflexible professional and personal commitments which render him unavailable during the period newly suggested” by Prosecutor Williams.

They said Mr Dhurjon and Mr Da Silva are in a similar position. ‘Each is unavoidably bound by certain engagements (including much needed post-cancer treatment requiring 2 weeks of convalescence) which can admit of no rearrangement and would, in any event, be absent from the Georgetown jurisdiction for a major portion of the suggested period. “In those circumstances, counsel for the requested persons are unable to consent to any departure from Her Worship’s well-considered adjournment orders,” they said.

They also said Trinidad and Tobago lawyer Rajiv Persad is also unavailable on account of his court diary and his judicial assignment.

The defence lawyers reminded that the adjournment orders made on Thursday followed an extended discourse, culminating in the fixture of the present dates which were expressly confirmed as suitable to all parties.

The defence lawyers said they would be willing to consider an adjournment after 5 and 6 February, “should that course prove more convenient to our learned friends representing the requesting State (US).”