Andrew Bennett’s Extradition Fight Heads Back to High Court

A major ruling from the Caribbean Court of Justice is shaking up a high-profile extradition fight involving Belizean attorney Andrew Bennett. The CCJ overturned earlier decisions after finding they relied on a law that wasn’t even in force when key WhatsApp evidence was collected. Those messages are central to U.S. efforts to extradite Bennett on money laundering charges, claims he denies. The court stopped short of ruling on whether the messages are constitutional, saying the arguments weren’t fully tested. Instead, it sent the case back to the High Court for a fresh hearing, setting the stage for a deeper legal showdown over digital privacy and constitutional rights. Attorney Hector Guerra says the ruling is a clear reminder that the protection of citizens’ rights must come first.

 

Hector Guerra, Attornery-at-law

“At the CCJ we launched a wider abuse of process argument. We set that if you want to extradite a citizen of our country you must do so within he parameters of the law, so that it is properly grounded and you don’t abuse the rights of our citizens and you don’t do away with the constitutional protections to privacy. You don’t do away with the constitutional protection of arbitrary search and seizure, because that is what this really amounts to. We live in a digital age where we engage with WhatsApp, messenger and share our private information on these platforms and there must, if we are to safeguard our citizens, there must be a legitimate right of every citizens to say if I am doing this and I expect some level of privacy to be attached to that communication. At the CCJ is was revealed that the Interception of Communication Act on which the High Court and the Court of Appeal relied upon had not been brought into effect. That meant the High Court and Court of Appeal had fell into error, because it is based on a law that was not ineffective. There are still constitutional issues without the Interception of Communication Act, so even without that act our common law says you can only intercept communication with judicial oversight. The CCJ found that while that may be the case you have to go back down to the High Court to properly advance those arguments.”

 

Attorney Guerra says his legal team are deliberating fresh arguments on behalf of Bennett, including entrapment. No official date has been set for the hearing as yet.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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