Extradition Hearings For Three Wanted Belize City Men Held in Magistrates Court

Three of four Belizeans who are presently fighting their extradition to the United States were before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith today. They are Gary Seawell, Fakhnul Salim and Deon Bruce. The cases of Salim and Bruce were adjourned for a later date, but arguments were submitted in respect of Seawell. Attorneys Illiana Swift and Magali Perdomo appeared for the U.S. and the Solicitor General, while attorney Arthur Saldivar represented Seawell. Saldivar found a number of disparities in the bundle of documents presented to support the extradition of Seawell.  More than seven of the eleven documents were signed by persons whose commission had expired before the documents were introduced, Saldivar told the court. He also questioned the authenticity of the exhibits from Francisco Barria, Robert Hernandez, and Raymond Williams, as well as Samuel Johnson, Samantha Bennett, Brian Kelly, Patricia Shaw, Todd Nelson Young and Richard Meighan. He further submitted that it was well within the knowledge of the U.S. that the documents were of suspicious character since their commission had expired well before 2006. Saldivar also argued that a document submitted by Seawell’s common-law wife could not be admitted for consideration in extradition cases. Because Salidvar did not inform the solicitor general’s office that he would be making objections on the inadmissibility of most of their exhibits, time was requested for research and arguments. The Chief Magistrate adjourned the Seawell extradition case for September eleventh. With respect to Bruce’s case, it was adjourned for November eighteenth, while Salim’s next court date is October twenty-first.