News About the Case

                New extradition law globalizes justice
                    BY PAUL WEINBERG Eye Weekly - Toronto

                    Is Simon Raghoonanan, the landed
                    immigrant and Toronto resident sitting
                    in the Metro West Detention Centre,
                    the same Simon Raghoonanan charged
                    with participating in the murder of a
                    state witness in Trinidad? Trinidadian
                    authorities think so, and have
                    requested his extradition to stand trial.
                    And, because of a new Canadian
                    extradition law that accepts evidence
                    even from governments with less
                    stringent legal requirements than
                    Canada's, Raghoonanan is set to go to
                    Trinidad, possibly to face the death
                    penalty.

                    The only evidence offered by the
                    Trinidadian authorities at the Toronto
                    extradition hearing was an enlarged
                    group photo, in which the accused's
                    head is "slightly bowed" and the bottom
                    third of his face "is not truly
                    straightforward," noted Justice Paul
                    Dilks in his deliberation. Nonetheless,
                    the judge determined "on the balance of probabilities" that the man
                    facing him in the courtroom is the same person being sought, and he
                    should be returned to Trinidad to stand trial.

                    Lawyers representing Raghoonanan are appealing Justice Dilks' Jan. 18
                    decision on constitutional grounds. One of them, Jeffrey House, notes
                    that Canadian law does not normally permit the introduction in a trial
                    of hearsay evidence -- e.g., when somebody hears somebody else
                    make a comment about the accused person. But that is exactly what
                    has happened in the hearing for his client, he claims.

                    The new federal law allows foreign governments to introduce evidence
                    "of a lower standard" for the purposes of having one of their nationals
                    or even a Canadian citizen brought to their jurisdiction to face trial for
                    an offence allegedly committed there, and possible imprisonment or
                    worse if convicted, says House.

                    The Trinidadian government was not, for instance, required to provide
                    a fingerprint or a sworn affidavit by an eyewitness or official to
                    identify Raghoonanan. All it had to do was present a summary of the
                    evidence regarding Raghoonanan, as certified by their top legal
                    official, says Bill Corbett, a senior general counsel at the federal
                    Department of Justice in Ottawa. "[The certification] puts somebody's
                    name on the line, which wasn't the case before," he says.

                    Corbett says that with the "internationalization of crime" involving the
                    drug trade, fraud and terrorism, Canada has become more flexible with
                    regard to the types of evidence presented by countries with vastly
                    different legal systems.

                    While Trinidad's justice system is similar to Canada's in terms of a
                    shared British heritage, it differs in a major way: judges are mandated
                    to impose capital punishment for all convictions involving murder,
                    including for those only peripherally involved.

                    So Raghoonanan, who's accused of driving the getaway car following
                    the murder of Clint Huggins at the side of a road, faces the death
                    penalty if convicted.

                    Huggins was slated to testify against nine members of a drug gang
                    charged with the murder of a family. The men were found guilty and
                    were hanged on June 5, 1999. But the guilt of one of the nine, Russell
                    Sankerali, was placed in some doubt by a five-year-old taped police
                    interview with Huggins that strangely appeared on the eve of the
                    convicted going to the gallows. Despite the new evidence, which had
                    not been presented to Sankerali's defence counsel during his trial, the
                    Trinidad government proceeded with the hanging.

                    Trinidad has received a bad rap internationally, says retired Canadian
                    anthropology professor Frances Henry, who lives in Port of Spain, the
                    capital. She reports that the hangings of the gang were received with
                    applause. For Trinidadians, "[Sankerali] was a 'bandit' anyway -- so, if
                    he didn't participate in the family murders, he probably did a lot of
                    other equally bad deeds."

                    But Amnesty International takes the position that Canada should think
                    twice before sending Raghoonanan to face a flawed justice system in
                    which people charged with crimes spend long periods in detention and
                    are often unrepresented in court.

                    "The Trinidad government has been quite assertive in dismissing any
                    concerns we and others have raised about human rights protection
                    and the use of the death penalty in Trinidad," says Alex Neve,
                    secretary general of the Canadian section of Amnesty International. 

TORONTO MAN ARRESTED FOR 1996 MURDER IN TRINIDAD

    TORONTO, Nov. 30 /CNW/ - THIS MORNING, ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE
ARRESTED A TORONTO MAN WANTED IN TRINIDAD FOR THE SLAYING OF HIS COUSIN. THE
MURDER OF CLINT HUGGINS TOOK PLACE ON THE ISLAND OF TRINIDAD ON FEBRUARY 20,
1996. THE VICTIM WAS A STATE PROTECTED WITNESS. IT IS ALLEGED THAT THE ACCUSED
AND THREE OTHER PERSONS LURED THE VICTIM TO A PARTY AFTER WHICH HE WAS KILLED.
    ON REQUEST FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF TRINIDAD, THE RCMP IMMIGRATION TASK
FORCE TRACKED THE SUSPECT TO HIS RESIDENCE.

    ARRESTED TODAY WAS:

    SIMON RAGHOONANAN, age 37, of HUMBERLINE DRIVE, TORONTO, ON.

    THE THREE OTHER SUSPECTS HAVE BEEN RECENTLY ARRESTED IN TRINIDAD FOR THE
MURDER. THE INVESTIGATION IN TRINIDAD IS BEING CONDUCTED BY THE CRIMINAL
INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT IN PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD.
 

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