Dear Editor,
The Attorney General’s recent statement made in the public domain that extradition processes are designed to be swift misrepresents international legal reality and sets dangerous expectations for Guyanese jurisprudence, as referenced in all the Guyanese newspapers of December 31, 2025.
In Canada, where I practice law in one of the Provinces by virtue of my licensed membership as a L1 Lawyer with its Law Society, extradition hearings routinely involve extensive delays—not due to inefficiency, but because of legal protections. The case of a Guyanese Rice Board accountant exemplifies this: despite allegations involving millions in fraud, Canadian courts allowed full exploration of Charter rights, double criminality issues, and potential oppression concerns.
Canadian law, governed by Charter paragraph 11(b), recognizes that extradition proceedings can conflict with the right to timely trial. Courts have developed detailed principles balancing Canada’s obligations with individual rights. As documented by Currie & Ellyson (2019), Extradition and Trial Delays: Recent Developments (and Lessons?) such delays are legally normal and internationally compliant.
Defense counsel routinely challenge extradition on grounds including:
● Double criminality failures
● Charter violations (cruel
punishment, discrimination)
● Administrative law arguments
(oppression, political motives)
● Documentary deficiencies
The erroneous suggestion by a Guya-nese Government Minister that extradition should be insulated from “legal processes” contradicts international human rights standards and the practice of democratic nations.
Guyana deserves a justice system that protects rights rigorously, not one that rushes to judgement under political pressure.
I trust the public gets the bigger picture than what the Guyanese A.G.’s statement endeavours erroneously to make and to paint in a whitewash manner a legal issue, that “Extradition process, by its very nature, is not intended to be embroiled in legal processes, and that’s why the extradition law of Guyana, as does the extradition law of almost every country, sets out a process by which extradition proceedings are heard and determined and the way challenges can be made in relation to that process….”