A United States Grand Jury has handed down indictments for three of the ten defendants who are already before the court for the kidnapping and murder of Balram Maharaj, and one more new accused brought before the court yesterday.
By Ucill CambridgeThe US wants the four, who include two of the three soldiers before the court on the matter, Sgt Leon Nurse and Cpl Ricardo DeFour and accused Kevon de Merieux and the new face in court, David Suchit, to be extradited to the United States for Maharaj's kidnapping.
Senior Council appearing for the State, Israel Khan, told Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls that the intent was to have all the accused extradited and said more US warrants were expected.
David West, head of the Central Authority Department, told the court that the grand jury in the District of Columbia in the United States met at 11 a.m. on Wednesday and the indictments were handed down.
At the Port of Spain Magistrates' Court yesterday, McNicolls read extradition warrants to the three defendants and the fourth newly accused (Suchit) who appeared before the court in the matter for the first time yesterday.
Suchit stood in court looking bewildered.
When asked by McNicolls if he had legal representation or any family member in court, he said no.
The court appointed Leon Gokool as his defence.
After the charges were read, Suchit seemed to be even more confused, leading McNicolls to read the charge again after he asked loudly: "What is the alleged crime I commit, sir?"
Suchit has not been charged locally and is not wanted by local law enforcement in connection with the crimes against Maharaj.
He is only wanted by the US authorities, so the charge pertaining to the extradition was the only charge read to him.
Individually the four were told that they were wanted on two charges.
The first, conspiracy to engage in hostage taking and the next was hostage taking.
They were told that the offences were contrary to Section 34 of the Taking of Hostage Act against the laws of the United States and that they were extraditable offences as defined in Section 68 of the Foreign Territories Act.
However, the preliminary enquiry into the kidnapping and murder of Maharaj for which ten accused, de Merieux, Sgt Nurse, Cpl de Four, Cpl Ricardo Stevenson and Maharaj's former common-law wife Doreen Alexander-Durity, Zion Clarke, Kevin Nixon, Anderson Starker and brothers Kenneth and Wayne Pierre was due to begin yesterday.
Maharaj, 62, a Vietnam war veteran, was abducted while at the Samaan Tree Bar in Aranjuez.
He was in Trinidad visiting relatives at Chandy Lane in El Socorro.
Maharaj's body was found on January 8 at Grande Curacaye, Santa Cruz.
His corpse was cut up and placed in a plastic barrel and a cooler and buried in two holes.
Defence lawyers for the accused became upset when Khan told the court he wanted the enquiry to be adjourned to May 5, since he first said one of the accused, Nixon, was not brought to court yesterday as he was serving a sentence.
The Daily Express has learnt that Nixon is at present incarcerated for not paying maintenance fees.
Then Khan told the court that with the extradition hearings now pending, he felt that proceeding with the matter, and then having a successful extradition, would be a waste of time and money.
Theodore Gurerra SC, on hearing Khan's request, accused the prosecution and the State of conspiring to delay the enquiry.
He said he saw Nixon's absence from the court as "a ploy by the State not to begin the matter ... it is a conspiracy by the State right back to the police".
Another defence attorney, Evans Welch, said the extradition hearing "is no good reason for delaying the proceeding".
Similar sentiments were expressed by other members of the defence including Kenneth Monroe-Brown and Keith Scotland.
Both the extradition matter and kidnapping and murder were adjourned to May 5.
