Port-of-Spain: The United States is tonight expressing disappointment with the outcome of the extradition case involving businessmen Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson.
The US Embassy in a statement says extradition is a powerful tool for fighting transnational crime and is used by countries all over the world including the United States and Trinidad and Tobago.
The governments of both countries entereted into a bilateral extradition treaty in 1996 and have since worked closely together on matters of extradition.
The US now says that although it is disappointed with the outcome, it values the relationship with Trinidad and Tobago and will continue to work with the government on other extradition cases.
Earlier this week the Attorney General issued a statement saying the government would not appeal a High Court ruling which stopped the extraditions.
The AG said the matters involving the two would now be heard in Trinidad and Tobago.
Galbaransingh and Ferguson were first indicted in 2005 in the Miami Federal Court on numerous fraud and money laundering charges stemming from alleged bid rigging between 1996 and 2005 on contracts for the Piarco International Airport.
The United States has been pursuing the extradition of both men since 2005.
Meantime in a statement late this evening Attorney General Anand Ramlogan explained that an appeal would have resulted in the defendant’s remaining on bail whilst they continue to muscle their way through a thus far accommodating legal system.
He says it was unlikely that they could even face trial in the US before expiration of a further eight to 10 years.
He says that by taking a decision not to appeal the High Court ruling the way is cleared for courts in Trinidad and Tobago to begin the trial of the two men without further delay. He says this does not mean that Galbaransingh and Ferguson will walk free without facing trial, a propspect which he says exisited if the state appealed.
The AG says he has every confidence in the ability of the Supreme Court of Justice of this country to competently and fairly try these defendants and deliver justice according to law.
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