Pubdate: Sun, 10 Sep 2006
Source: Guyana Cronicle (Guyana)
Copyright: 2006 Guyana Cronicle
Contact:  http://www.guyanachronicle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4262

CHARGES FILED IN T&T COURTS OVER KHAN HANDLING

AS THE Roger Khan saga continues, charges of kidnapping, false 
imprisonment, and misconduct in public office have been filed 
separately in a Trinidadian court against two Trinidad government 
officials and a top ranking United States embassy agent in the 
Caribbean twin-island republic implicated in handing the Guyanese 
businessman over into U.S. custody.

Gary Tuggle, head of the U.S.' Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 
Trinidad, David West, the head of Extradition Department in the 
Trinidad Attorney General Chambers, and Stephen Sookram, a 
Trinidadian immigration officer are likely to be served with notice 
next week to answer the charges in the Arima Magistrates Court on December 8.

According to documents seen by the Sunday Chronicle, the charges were 
laid in the Arima Magistrates Court on Thursday. The complainant is 
Sherman Ramoutar, an attorney for Khan. Khan is in U.S. Federal 
Prison awaiting a further hearing on charges that he conspired to 
import cocaine into the United States.

In the first instance, all three men are charged with false 
imprisonment, for having, on June 29, unlawfully and injuriously 
imprisoning Khan and detaining him against his will.

The second charge of kidnapping, or "unlawfully and by force and 
fraud" take and carry Khan against his will, was also filed against 
all three men.

In the third charge, only West and Sookram are named for misconduct 
in public office, "by unlawfully and injuriously imprisoning" Khan.

According to a local attorney for Khan, after the Guyanese 
businessman was expelled from Suriname, he was descending the stairs 
of the Surinamese airways flight at Piarco International Airport in 
Trinidad when he was taken by Sookram. The Immigration officer then 
took him to Tuggle, who saw him into an SUV and then into a private 
jet to the United States where he is now in custody.

According to the lawyer, charges were filed against West also, 
because he was the intellectual author of the events that transpired 
in Trinidad.

Khan, 36, were arrested in what Suriname police said was a huge drug 
bust that netted 213 kilos of cocaine on June 15 in Paramaribo.

Khan was flown from the country to the U.S. on June 29 after the 
authorities there said they had no charges against him.

This was despite the fact that Suriname Minister of Justice, Mr. 
Chandrikapersad Santokhi, had initially linked Khan to plots to 
assassinate key government and judicial officials in that country and 
had deemed him a threat to national and international security.

Santokhi had also told reporters that Khan, for about two years 
before, was also being investigated for cocaine trafficking, firearm 
possession and being part of a criminal gang.

Less than 24 hours after he was nabbed in Trinidad, Khan was 
arraigned at the Brooklyn Federal Court in New York before Judge 
Roanne Mann on a charge of "conspiring to import cocaine".

Meanwhile, the fate of the three Guyanese - Paul Rodrigues, Sean 
Belfield and Lloyd Roberts - still in separate jails in Suriname 
since they were nabbed on June 15 last, along with their alleged boss 
man Roger Khan - remains uncertain.

The men, all ex-policemen, were said to be working as bodyguards for 
Khan who has since been extradited to the United States and is due 
for a third court appearance on September 18 in New York.
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