'Complicated issues' led to delay - Leys

SOLICITOR GENERAL Douglas Leys says there were "several complicated issues" which caused the nine-month delay in the signing of the extradition request for Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

Leys, who told the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry on Wednesday that he had advised Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne from the "onset" that the request for Coke had evidence on which he could be prosecuted, said "there were issues, several complicated issues" behind the delay.

Coke has been extradited to the US which has accused him of drug and gun trafficking.

Lightbourne signed the request after much public outcry and condemnation from members of civil society who accused the state of improperly deploying the resources of the Government in Coke's defence.

Lightbourne, among other things, had said the wiretap evidence against Coke was illegally obtained and that formed part of her decision to have waited nine months before signing the authority to proceed against him.

Leys also said he advised Lightbourne that it was necessary for Coke to have been in the US at the time when he is alleged to have committed the offence of conspiracy to traffic drugs in that country.

"If you read the case, I think it is in (Vivian) Blake, in Blake one of the elements of the evidence was that when he travelled to the United States there were intercept calls there legitimately done in the US. In the Coke case, if you read the affidavit, you will see that wiretaps were done here and also in the United States," he said.

"We wanted to know if when Coke travelled to the United States that some of that wiretap evidence was legitimately done there and that would be a most relevant consideration for the matter," the solicitor general added.

He told the commission that he had long told Lightbourne she could sign the authority to proceed against Coke.

"Yes, I advised her at the outset," Leys said. "There was evidence there."

Former Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin has testified at the enquiry that he was told by National Security Minister Dwight Nelson that the extradition of Coke could lead to the collapse of the Government.