Azruddin, Nazar Mohamed move to High Court to block extradition to US

United States-indicted businessmen Nazar and Azruddin Mohamed have filed proceedings in the High Court, seeking to block their extradition to face money laundering, tax evasion, wire fraud and other charges before a Miami court.
The Fixed Date Application (FDA), is challenging the constitutionality of the Fugitive Offenders (Amendment) Act.
Home Affairs Minister Oneidge Walrond, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC, and Magistrate Judy Latchman were named as respondents in the proceedings.
In the court documents, lawyers for the Mohameds – Attorneys-at-Law Siand Dhurjon, Damien Da Silva and Roysdale Forde, SC – argued that the provisions of the Fugitive Offenders (Amendment) Act, particularly the Authority to Proceed (ATP), which launched the extradition proceedings against the father and son duo, are unconstitutional, void and a nullity in law.
Consequently, the businessmen are seeking the quashing of the authority to proceed by writ of certiorari as well as declarations from the court that Ministers Walrond and Nandlall can have no role in the issuance of the authority to proceed. The Mohameds are also seeking orders of prohibition, barring the two Ministers from having any further role in their extradition, as well as a suspension of the extradition proceedings before Magistrate Latchman pending the outcome of the High Court proceedings.

This FDA was filed just days after Magistrate Latchman dismissed a constitutional application filed by the Mohameds to have their extradition case referred to the High Court.
Latchman had ruled that the arguments presented by the Mohameds’ attorneys had already been settled by Guyana’s higher courts and did not warrant further consideration at the magistracy level. She described the defence’s application as both “frivolous and vexatious” and characterised it as “an abuse of the process” in her December 10 decision.
With the application denied, Magistrate Latchman confirmed that the extradition matter must proceed and set the hearing for commencement on January 6.
Their extradition is being sought under the Guyana–United Kingdom extradition treaty, which continues to operate in Guyana pursuant to Section 4(1)(a) of the Fugitive Offenders Act, Cap. 10:04, as amended by Act No. 10 of 2024. The request was formally submitted by the US Government on October 30, 2025.
The father-son duo have been indicted by a grand jury in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on 11 criminal charges ranging from wire fraud and mail fraud to money laundering, primarily connected to the export of gold to the US by their company, Mohamed’s Enterprises.
If convicted, most charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and fines of up to US$250,000, while the money laundering charge carries a fine of US$500,000 or the value of the laundered property.
The indictment follows sanctions imposed over a year ago by the US Government on the Mohameds, their businesses and the then Home Affairs Ministry Permanent Secretary (PS) Mae Thomas in relation to the same allegations.
The sanctions are related to the evasion of taxes on gold exports, with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) noting that between 2019 and 2023, Mohamed’s Enterprise omitted more than 10,000 kg of gold from import and export declarations and avoided paying more than US$50 million in duty taxes to the Government of Guyana.