“The Game Is Over”:

By Macushla N. Pinder -
Nassau, Bahamas:

Judge Rules On Ninety...

Supreme Court Justice John Lyons told the attorney for alleged drug kingpin Samuel "Ninety" Knowles on Thursday that "the game is over" and the attempt to have him brought back to The Bahamas could possibly create a "laughing stock" of the country’s judicial process.

Knowles was recently at the centre of a public furor after government officials extradited him to the United States to face drug related charges. He was extradited despite the fact that a hearing was pending in the Supreme Court.

His attorney, Roger Minnis, had asked the court to issue an order requesting that his client be brought back to The Bahamas so that he can be given due process.

Mr. Minnis had asked that both Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell and Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson appear before the court and explain why Knowles "could not be produced" or find them in contempt of court.

Siding with Mr. Minnis, Justice Lyons said in theory the defense attorney’s argument regarding the need for due process was "quite correct."

But he also reminded that contempt of court is a "very serious charge".

"One would expect that persons of such high office would be expected to obey court orders. If they were seen to get away with this, how could you possibly expect others to observe the rule of law?" Justice Lyons asked

"…But the first thing is the order allegedly breached must be unambiguous…The possible ambiguity - when is the matter complete?"

Justice Lyons added that the attorney general might have come to the understanding that Knowles had exhausted his due process.

"On that understanding, is it not open to the attorney general to come to the conclusion that for all intents and purposes, the legal proceedings for Knowles were complete…The attorney general is not only the chief law officer, but leader of the Bar. The traditional obligation is then to protect the judiciary from being made a laughing stock, embarrassment – collectively or individually," he said

With this, he painted a picture of regional judicial colleagues laughing at the fact that counsel would allow an argument that was destined to fail.

It is the point that prosecutor, Francis Cumberbatch built his case on.

As far as Mr. Cumberbatch saw it, even if Knowles were allowed to return to The Bahamas, his application would fall through.

Making his statements for more than an hour, Justice Lyons said counsel had "no place" bringing an application that would cause the court to fall in disrepute or be made a laughing stock.

"Samuel Knowles can carry on with this impossible task. He would buy himself three years, but he would have ended up in the same place, but I don’t intend to be so foolish," Justice Lyons said.

"In my opinion, to pursue an impossible task just to buy time and in the process be likely to cause a laughing stock, to manipulate the court in such a way is an abuse of power…The facts of the matter are very clear. Samuel Knowles has reached the end of the road. Finality has come."

Justice Lyons however commended both sides for their "hard fight" throughout the past six years, which called for a number of strategies and tactics being deployed.

"One can only commend counsel for his efforts, but it is over. I certainly don’t think Samuel Knowles should be brought back to this jurisdiction. The game is over. No extra time," he said.

Knowles is being held at the Federal Detention Centre in downtown Miami.

He is expected to return to court next Tuesday at 9am.

The London-based Privy Council recently dismissed Knowles’ appeal, clearing the way for his extradition.

He had been fighting two extradition requests. The first was made on March 26, 2001, months after a federal grand jury in the United States indicted Knowles and others on counts of conspiracy to possess cocaine and marijuana with the intent to distribute and conspiracy to import the same drugs in the United States between November 11, 1997 and December 8, 2000.

The second request was made on February 6, 2002. It charged Knowles and others with counts of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States between June 1995 and 1997.

But there was the outstanding application before the Supreme Court seeking his release, as pointed out by the Privy Council in its ruling.

That appeal was based on U.S. President George Bush’s reference to the accused as a drug kingpin.

His attorneys had maintained that such labeling would prevent their client from receiving a fair trial.

Knowles was extradited on August 28, 10 days after Justice Lyons scheduled a hearing date for the habeas corpus application to be heard.


29 September 2006

extradition

Magistrate Approves Kozeny Extradition:

By Stephen Gay -
Nassau, Bahamas:

Magistrate Carolita Bethel ruled on Thursday that Czech-born financier Viktor Kozeny can be extradited to the United States to face corruption charges.

Kozeny has been behind bars at Her Majesty’s Prison for nearly a year. Last October, he was indicted along with others in a New York court.

U.S. authorities claim that Kozeny and others bribed senior government officials of the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan in an effort to gain an unfair advantage during the privatization of the state-owned oil company.

The magistrate ordered Kozeny to be extradited to face corruption charges even though the U.S. had indicted him on money laundering and bribery charges.

Shortly after the ruling was read, Prosecutor Francis Cumberbatch quickly left the courtroom as Kozeny stood looking on.

Earlier in the day, as he was being led into the court, Kozeny told reporters outside the courtroom that he was confident that he was going to be released and that he was looking forward to getting a haircut following the proceedings.

Kozeny now has 15 days to appeal Magistrate Bethel’s ruling to the Supreme Court, where a habeas corpus application seeking his release, will be filed, according to his attorney, Clive Nichols.

Nichols said he hopes that after filing the appeal he would be able to get a hearing in the Supreme Court before the end of the year.

Mr. Nichols told The Bahama Journal after the hearing that even though accused drug kingpin Samuel "Ninety" Knowles was whisked away to Florida while a court matter was pending in The Bahamas, he was not concerned that the same would happen to his client.

He said that under the law once an appeal is filed, the applicant is then bound to the jurisdiction.

"I think the next ruling will be unequivocally changed," Kozeny told reporters. "I think it will turn out in my favour."

Kozeny, Frederic Bourke Jr. and David Pinkerton were charged in the United States with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it a crime to offer to pay, or to pay, foreign government officials in order to obtain or retain business.

The defendants were also charged with related crimes, including money laundering.

U.S. officials alleged that this particular crime came about as a result of wire transfers of millions of dollars to purchase Azeri vouchers and options, which in turn promoted violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The indictment further alleges that, beginning in August 1997 and continuing until 1999, Kozeny, Bourke and Pinkerton and others paid or caused to be paid millions of dollars worth of bribes to Azeri government officials to ensure that their investment consortium would gain a controlling interest in SOCAR, the oil company, and be able to reap huge profits from its ultimate resale in the market.

Kozeny, who is originally from the Czech Republic but has Irish citizenship, was arrested by Bahamian law enforcement authorities in October 2005 pursuant to a provisional arrest request made by the U.S. government.

29 September 2006

extradition

Haitian Ambassador Applauds Recruitment Of Haitian Teachers To Bahamas:

By Perry Scavella -
Nassau, Bahamas:

Haiti’s Ambassador to The Bahamas Louis Harold Joseph said Tuesday the recruitment of Haitian teachers to The Bahamas was nothing new, but a process that is happening throughout the Caribbean and the world.

"There are many aspects of Haiti that people don’t know," Mr. Joseph said. "Haiti contributed a lot to other countries."

He pointed to the 1960s, saying that when many African countries became independent, many Haitians went to those countries to teach. Similarly, during the 1960s, he said, Haitian educators also went to Quebec, Canada, to teach.

Mr. Joseph said his countrymen left mainly because of the opportunities that were being offered. But this migration was not only from Haiti, he noted.

"Many Caribbean countries in the region have the same problem [regarding] how to keep our professionals because sometimes it is difficult for our countries to offer opportunities to our nationals," he said.

"I think Jamaica has the same problems with teachers and nurses and many other countries in the Caribbean."

On Monday, education officials announced that they had recruited 14 Cuban and two Haitian educators into the public school system to fill vacancies.

The foreign educators were recruited to teach subjects such as French, Spanish, mathematics, physical education, and physics.

The recruits were expected to start teaching on Tuesday or Wednesday. Six of the Cubans were to remain in New Providence and the others were to be sent to Andros, Acklins, San Salvador, Abaco, Exuma, and Mayaguana. The Haitian educators were to remain in New Providence.

Minister of Education Alfred Sears said the government made "no apologises" in recruiting the Haitian and Cuban teachers.

Mr. Joseph said the recruitment was a positive step and would encourage stronger ties between the two countries.

"Certainly, the relations between the two countries are very good. We have a very cordial relation. I believe the relation is getting stronger," he said.

The public school system has educators from 13 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and countries in the Caribbean region.

According to Howard Newbold, acting director of School Management, 65 percent of the teachers in The Bahamas are Bahamians while 35 percent are foreigners.

27 September 2006

education

FNM Demands Full Accounting In Permit Matter:

By Tameka Lundy -
Nassau, Bahamas:

The Opposition Free National Movement is urging the government to release a thorough accounting of the process under which American celebrity Anna Nicole Smith received approval for permanent residency in The Bahamas, in the continuation of an ongoing saga.

The FNM made the call on Monday night apparently undeterred by the declarations of Prime Minister Perry Christie and Labour and Immigration Minister Shane Gibson that the latter did not act improperly in granting the approval to Ms. Smith.

The FNM released another statement on the matter following the Prime Minister’s vehement defence of the Immigration Minister and Mr. Gibson’s labeling of his opponents’ claims as a "vicious lie conceived in ignorance and spread in wickedness by the FNM."

"We are therefore calling on Prime Minister Perry Christie to give a full and complete accounting of this whole affair including the dates of the application, its consideration and approval, the rationale behind the approval, and to whom the cheque was delivered and where," the statement said.

"No one has accused the minister of anything illegal but we do accuse him of abusing his ministerial office in order to accommodate a personal friend who might not otherwise have been approved for this privilege and certainly not in such record time," it added.

The FNM last week claimed that Minister Gibson had personally collected a $10,000 cheque from Ms. Smith’s home to pay for her permanent residency approval and former FNM Cabinet minister Dr. Earl Deveaux claimed that she had been given preferential treatment. It was another angle to Ms. Smith’s highly publicized seclusion in The Bahamas following the tragic death of her son Daniel Wayne Smith two weeks ago, days after she had given birth to a baby girl.

Minister Gibson explained following the first round of allegations that he is simply working fast and furiously to put in place new strategies to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in dealing with immigration matters.

He admitted in a Bahama Journal interview that he knew the reality TV star and former Playboy playmate personally.

The FNM insisted in its latest statement that the minister has missed the point completely in the matter of the rushed approval of the application for permanent residence which the party insisted was granted in less than three weeks.

"That is utter nonsense and so is the Minister’s incredible assertion that it is impossible for him to interfere with the process relating to the application, consideration and granting of permanent residence," the FNM’s statement said.

"It is possible for him to interfere in this process and the FNM is saying that that is exactly what he did. What we now want to know is the full extent of that interference."

According to the Opposition, it is confident that the Bahamian people do not believe that this quick approval was as a result of improved efficiencies put in place by the Minister at the Department since Ms. Smith is his personal friend.

"That is why he facilitated her jumping the queue. And that is wrong," the party said.

"The more we hear about this affair the more convinced we are that there is more to it than meets the eye – and what meets the eye is worrying enough."

Minister Gibson continues to maintain that there is nothing illegal, immoral or unethical about the matter. He insisted that there has been proper accounting of the payment cheque which was made out to the Public Treasury and deposited on Friday past.

27 September 2006

bahamian politics

HIV Transmission From Mother To Baby Less Than Two Percent:

By Macushla N. Pinder -
Nassau, Bahamas:

Just over 100 pregnant women were identified with HIV last year, a figure that has remained virtually the same in recent years, but the vast majority of their babies were born without the virus that causes AIDS, health officials say.

According to Bernadette Saunders, senior nursing officer in the Department of Health and Bahamas representative to the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Centre, of the 105 pregnant women who were identified with HIV in 2005, only two of their babies are infected with the virus.

Mrs. Saunders explained that the infections in the babies were mainly the result of the mothers not accessing the available healthcare.

"These are women who are afraid to come for care in the first instance because they know they are HIV positive. There is still a stigma surrounding the disease here in The Bahamas," she said.

"Again, these are women who may have gone to the antenatal clinic and are afraid to go back or those who attend the clinic very late in their pregnancy. They need to come early in order to start the treatment on time."

From 1994, mother to child transmission of HIV has steadily decreased in The Bahamas from 30 percent to 10 percent, to now less than two percent, according to health officials.

This means that health officials have been able to prevent 98 percent of babies from contracting HIV from their infected mothers.

But officials say they are determined to push that figure to 100 percent.

"We will not be satisfied until we have reduced this rate to zero percent. The treatment works. It is available and it is free for everyone to access it," Ms. Saunders told the Bahama Journal following the opening ceremony of the Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV Adaptation Pilot Workshop.

The weeklong workshop that is bringing together senior officials from the Ministry and Department of Health along with partners from Guyana, Jamaica and Suriname, is aimed at identifying the successes, gaps and lessons learned in implementing national PMTCT training programmes.

The goal is also to draft preliminary national PMTCT training plans and identify steps to start their rollout and develop a preliminary plan of action for enhancing PMTCT curriculum and materials.

"We now have a curriculum that has all of the country’s policies and protocols as it relates to mother to child transmission, one that would be available to nurses, doctors, social workers and pharmacists," Ms Saunders said.

Officials are hoping to have a final Prevention Mother-To-Child Transmission curriculum for The Bahamas in place by December.

"We have looked at all the materials that we would like to include in this curriculum. We have developed some of our policies as it relates to the prevention of mother to child transmission and we have a document," she said.

"When we pilot this document this week, the participants will actually give us feedback and so I think the end of the year is achievable for the final document to be in place if we continue to work at this pace."

The PMTCT has been touted as an important component of the HIV prevention programme.

Officials say there are between 39 million and 40 million people who have tested positive for HIV globally.

"We can only [win] this struggle through awareness and dissemination of factual information to all our healthcare providers," Dr. Herbert Orlander, a dermatology specialist, reminded.

Bringing remarks on behalf of Health Minister Senator Dr. Bernard Nottage was Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Elma Garraway, who said The Bahamas is achieving many successes in addressing HIV/AIDS.

"Only two weeks ago, the Lyford Cay Foundation in collaboration with the Clinton Foundation presented a new CD4 machine, which would not only help to improve the quality of life for persons living with HIV, but also add years to their lives," Mrs. Garraway said.

The machine is used to measure the blood’s content of CD4 cells that indicate how well a patient’s immune system is functioning and how far AIDS has advanced.

26 September 2006

health