38 / 494
37
“I left Vale Royal and, within 5 minutes, I received
information that Coke had fled from his home in Belvedere
and headed to Tivoli Gardens.”
FINDING
3.9.
It is very probable that Coke was ‘tipped off’ but that
probability was not of immediate consequence because the request of
the USG was not in hand and no warrant was in existence for the arrest
of Coke on 24 August 2009. The leak did however, rule out any use of
a soft detention and it enabled Coke to have the opportunity to fortify
himself in Tivoli. On the state of the evidence adduced to us, we are
unable to make a positive finding as to the origin of the tip off.
ROLE OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL
3.10.
When the former Attorney-General, Ms. Dorothy Lightbourne, gave
evidence, she said that Prime Minister Golding telephoned her on 24 August
2009 and told her that a request for Coke’s extradition was on its way. The next
day, she received a telephone call from the Office of the Director of Public
Prosecutions (DPP). It was the Deputy DPP who said that there was someone
from the military in her office and the person wanted to discuss the extradition
with Ms. Lightbourne. Ms. Lightbourne said “I would not entertain it since it had
not come through the proper channels, that is to say, the procedure and protocol
for dealing with an extradition request had not been followed”.
3.11.
The proper procedure as represented to us was, in summary –
(a) A request for extradition is made by the Requesting
State to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of GoJ;
(b) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs then sends the
documentation to the Ministry of Justice. An
administrative officer prepares a letter in standard