Rhett Fuller’s extradition case wraps up in Appeals Court

Rhett Fuller

The Rhett Fuller extradition case continued in Appeals Court today. On Friday the Court of Appeals rejected as evidence, two cables released by the website Wikileaks. The cables revealed that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Attorney General, Wilfred Elrington, held meetings with U.S. Embassy representatives regarding the extradition process of Fuller and Mark Seawell, who the US also wants to try. Today, Fuller’s attorney, Eamon Courtenay, argued several points in the Appeals Court Justices where there was one absentia, Justice Samuel Awich. Prior to being appointed to the Appeals Court, Awich ruled against Fuller in the Supreme Court. So Courtenay’s arguments included rebuttals to Awich’s ruling and Elrington’s acceptance of a Privy Council judgment rather than forming his own as the government representative with the authority to decide whether or not Fuller stays in the country. News Five spoke to Courtenay as he exited the Appeals Court Chamber late this evening.

Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for Rhett Fuller

Eamon Courtenay

“The entire basis of the application was to try to establish that Mister Justice Awich did not consider our submissions. We had submitted that Minister Elrington did not properly weigh the evidence that Mister Fuller had put before him and that in fact what he did was that he looked at what the Privy Council had said and said oh I come to the same conclusion. Mister Justice Awich seems to be saying that he agrees with that. Our submission to the court is that Rhett Fuller Decision in the Privy Council has nothing to do with what was before the Minister. And once; we hope that if we convince them of that that our next point will be that when you look at the evidence you would see that Justice Awich did not deal with complaints that Mister Fuller was raising. I think that you can see that the Court was giving me a warm time with the arguments as they did to Miss Perdomo. The judicial process is ended and now it is for the minister to make a decision as a minister. Is this the way I want to treat a Belizean? Should a Belizean who has been made to wait for eight years before a request for extradition is come; should that person be sent? The minister has to consider, why is it that the American’s did not disclose all the contacts that they had with Mister Fuller prior to them making the request for extradition? Another important factor that the Minister absolutely did not look at which the cases say he can look at is the effect of this on his family. Mister Fuller has a daughter that is suffering from autism and what is the effect of that on Mister Fuller’s daughter; Mister Fuller’s family if he is extradited. None of that was considered by the minister and those are the matters that the minister ought to have taken into account and to determine in our submission that Mister Fuller should not go. And we are saying to the Court that he failed to do this and he failed to do it because he felt that the Privy Council had decided everything already which is wrong.”

If this appeal does not favor his client, Courtenay says an appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice has not been ruled out as an option.