The State has dropped the main charges against two local businessmen accused of fraud during the Piarco Airport construction project, tying up loose ends to allow their extradition to the United States.
By Imran AliDirector of Public Prosecutions, Geoffrey Henderson, made the move suddenly on Monday evening, moments after the two businessmen complained they should not be extradited while they were facing similar charges locally.
This was one of the main arguments argued on behalf of Steve Ferguson and Ishwar Galbaransingh, who filed for judicial review of the Attorney General's decision to authorise their extradition and the Chief Magistrate's decision to issue extradition warrants.
Justice Nolan Bereaux is hearing the application in the Port of Spain High Court.
In the face of a letter from the DPP advising that the local charges had been discontinued, British Queen's Counsel Keir Starmer-one of the battery of attorneys representing the businessmen -told the judge yesterday he intended to prove there was still an overlap between the US-based charges and other charges against the two men locally.
He said the argument against extraditing Ferguson and Galbaransingh would remain valid once he demonstrates that overlap.
Starmer is expected to begin his submission when the case resumes today.
In his January 9 letter to the Central Authority Department in the Ministry of the Attorney General-the agency that manages extradition requests-Henderson said he had intended since November 2006, when the US requested the extraditions, to discontinue the local charges.
Henderson said when he heard from State Attorney David West, who heads the department, that the two men were still facing the charges, he moved the same day to discontinue them.
The charges, laid in 2004, allege that Ferguson and Galbaransingh conspired with others to manipulate the tendering process for the construction of the airport terminal building and the supply of specialist airport equipment.
Both contracts were worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and the DPP did not say in his letter whether the charge remained pending against the other alleged conspirators.
Also at yesterday's hearing, Queen's Counsel Edward Fitzgerald-also a member of Ferguson and Galbaransingh's team-argued that the authority to proceed with the extradition which Attorney General John Jeremie had issued should be struck down because of bias.
He also argued other technical points which he said would invalidate the authority to proceed, and all of which relate to certain legal requirements in the procedure he claimed had not been satisfied.
The US government asked that Ferguson and Galbaransingh to be extradited to face an 82-count indictment alleging a conspiracy with several US-based businessmen to launder money and commit wire fraud during the airport project.
