Bobbing…and weaving

For months, Sanction Man’s legal strategy against the US’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) extradition request appeared less like a defence and more like a marathon sponsored by the Association of Procedural Delays!! Every junction became another scenic detour around the rose bush; every courtroom was another rest stop, and every appeal was confidently presented as the one that would finally reveal – abracadabra!! – the magical legal trapdoor through which the entire extradition process would disappear.
Then finally, at the end of his road, came the CCJ!! After giving Sanction Man some hope by halting the case for a while in the Magistrate Court – with admirable economy, the Court announced that the show ain’t over! The audience was just being directed back to the theatre where the first act had begun – the Magistrate’s Court!! While patiently waiting as constitutional fireworks exploded overhead in the CCJ, it suddenly found itself back in business!!
The lesson’s a familiar one to anyone hooked on action movies – like your Eyewitness!! The hero spends 90 minutes outrunning helicopters, scaling mountains, commandeering trains, and parachuting from aircraft – only to discover he’s arrived exactly where the story intended him to be all along!! The Magistrate’s Court with Judy now resumes centre stage!! Your Eyewitness imagines the extradition file sighing with relief as it’s dusted off once again!! Court clerks who’d nearly forgotten where it was shelved are reacquainting themselves with an old companion!!
There is, of course, nothing improper with Sanction Man exhausting every legal remedy available. While he wouldn’t admit it – that’s the hallmark of a society governed by law! Appeals exist for good reason, and constitutional safeguards protect everyone equally – including gold smugglers!! But your trusty Eyewitness must observe that – somewhere between the first challenge and the latest ruling – the journey itself seemed to become Sanction Man’s destination!!
Now the clock resumes ticking!! The courtroom drama ain’t ended; it has simply returned to its original script. The Ministers have been found to be just doing their jobs – with no malice – since Sanction man hadn’t entered the political arena then!! Submissions gonna have to be tested; the legal requirements for extradition examined and the Magistrate will decide whether our treaty obligations have been met.
The old saying of “You can run, but you can’t hide!” survives because it contains an uncomfortable truth – running can buy time; it can change the scenery and even convince spectators that the finish line has moved. But occasionally the law proves remarkably patient: it simply waits at the next courthouse!!
In this case, the Caribbean’s highest court has gently reminded everyone that while legal roads may be long and winding – smart flies always end up in the cow’s posterior orifice!!

…for fees
Now that the CCJ has delivered its 256-page judgement putting Sanction Man back in the docks to ship him off to Miami, his mega-paid lawyers are frantically trying to keep their gravy train going!! Sidestepping the elephant in the room – that the CCJ rejected their substantive objection that the Home Affairs Minister exhibited “bias” in issuing the Authority to Proceed (ATP) on his extradition hearings – they’ve now issued a self-serving release bigging themselves up!!
Why?? Because they raised issues “clarifying” the extradition process in the region!! Can you believe this?? So that’s why their sugar daddy client hired them?? To CLARIFY the law while leaving him in the lurch?? But even here, they’re playing fast and loose with the Court’s judgement!!  To their main contention that intemperate language by the Attorney General and Vice President might’ve triggered bias in the Minister, the Court announced:
Sanction Man “does not have clean hands. He provoked verbal attacks against him by his own earlier attacks against Government officials”!!
Do fu do na obeah!!

…for brownie points
Guess Sanction Man figures that if his offer to raise the Barima is taken up, he can argue that he needs to remain in Guyana to oversee the operation??
Any port in a storm, they say!!