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Last night, we told you about the appeal that the Bahamians, Rohn Knowles and Kelvin Leach, filed in the Court of Appeal. They were trying to block the Government from carrying out extradition proceedings against them, on behalf of the US Government.

Well, the news coming out of the Appeal Court tonight is major: they were successful. They will not be extradited to the US to face trial for allegation of securities fraud. The Court of Appeal has ruled that whatever evidence the US has against them was obtained unlawfully.

As we told you, their attorneys, Eamon Courtenay and Leslie Mendez argued yesterday that the US Government violated Belize’s Interception of Communications Act, because they did not have authority from the Supreme Court to conduct telephone surveillance against Knowles and Leach. The appellants also said that the US authorities failed to properly follow the mechanisms under the extradition treaty between Belize and the US. They further alleged that these investigations against them breached their constitutional rights to privacy, which should protect them from arbitrary searches and seizures like this one.

The case was argued yesterday, and the judges reserved their decision for a date to be announced. It was expected that the judgement in this appeal would take several months for the Court of Appeal panel to reach. But, they sent out notices that in a matter of hours, they had arrived at an oral decision on the case.

In the court of Appeal today, President Manuel Sosa announced that he and his brother and sister judges have ruled that extradition proceedings against Knowles and Leach are to be permanently stayed. They agreed with the Bahamians that the evidence against them was unlawfully obtained, which means that their constitutional rights were violated. The extradition has been ruled as an abuse of the court’s process, and so, both men were discharged from the proceedings. 

Both Knowles and Leach were excited about the good news, and they shared a friendly embrace in the court while the judge was announcing that they won their appeal. We got a chance to speak with their attorney about the very positive outcome in their fight against extradition:

Eamon Courtenay, SC - Attorney for the Appellants
"I’m very happy for Mr. Knowles and Mr. Leach. What you have in that case is the United States Government went through an interception of their communication. They did so in violation of the law of Belize. They did so in violation of the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between Belize and the United States. And they did so in violation of the constitution of Belize. You will recall that the Rhett Fuller extradition decision, and the Privy Council held that if it is unconstitutional to extradite someone, it’s an abuse of process, and it should not happen. We made submissions to the court that when you do surreptitious interception of communications, without judicial authority, it violates your right to privacy, and your right not to be subject to arbitrary search and seizure.Clearly, the Court of Appeal agreed with us, and felt that the United Sates acted unconstitutionally in Belize. And that to proceed with the extradition would be an abuse of process and unconstitutional. And therefore, they forthwith released Mr. Knowles and Mr. Leach. And therefore, their extradition proceedings are at an end, and the gentlemen will not be forced to subject themselves to this unconstitutional proceeding."

The Court of Appeal will deliver the written reasons for their judgment at a later date.