Egg on PM's face

DAYS AFTER Prime Minister Bruce Golding told Parliament that the United States (US) had refused to budge in the extradition saga involving alleged drug dealer and gunrunner Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, a key member of the governing party had asked that Jamaica's sovereignty be observed.

Karl Samuda, the general secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), told a press conference in Ocho Rios, St Ann, on Sunday that Jamaica could not allow the US to break the laws in its bid to arrest Dudus.

"We are a sovereign state. We respect the laws of our country. We expect that the United States will honour the respect that we give to our laws and we will not resile from that because the moment we do that, then we compromise the freedom of every Jamaican," Samuda said.

Kingston and Washington have been locked in a battle since a New York grand jury indictment for Coke was unsealed last August.

Coke is aligned to the JLP.

The Jamaican Government had refused to pave the way for his extradition, arguing that the treaty between both countries had been breached. Jamaica also charged that telephone conversations which the US intends to use against Coke were illegally obtained.

Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Golding told Parliament that the matter of the extradition treaty between Jamaica and the US had become one of "significant controversy".

"The United States government has remained virtually intransigent on the matter ... or intractable or inflexible," Golding said.

But in a dramatic turn of events last night, Golding said his attorney general would be signing the order to proceed against Coke.

Prime Minister Golding was strident that he was willing to demonstrate that "constitutional rights do not begin at Liguanea" - the home of the US Embassy in Jamaica.

"Christopher Coke is wanted for an alleged crime in the US for which he ought to be tried and the Government of Jamaica, consistent with its obligations under the treaty, will do everything to facilitate his extradition once it is done in accordance with the provisions of the treaty and the laws of our country," the prime minister had said.

He had told Parliament "Govern-ment will, without hesitation, facilitate the extradition of any Jamaican citizen wanted to stand trial for extraditable offences once the obligations under the treaty are met".