Categories

News – South Africa: Extraditions back on course

WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.

Original Post Date: 2009-01-22 Time: 07:00:10  Posted By: Jan

For five years, South African justice bosses were legally thwarted from sending alleged criminals wanted in America back to the US to stand trial.

But all that changed on Wednesday, when the Constitutional Court unanimously ruled that South Africa’s 1999 extradition agreement with the US was valid.

The landmark decision marks the end of an embarrassing era of legal limbo for local justice authorities, who are now preparing to extradite an accused drug dealer and two stem cell fraud suspects back to America.

Within hours of the judgment, local Interpol authorities were arranging for the arrest of alleged stem cell fraudsters Stephen van Rooyen and Laura Brown, whose alleged duping of several terminally ill Americans won them a place on the FBI’s most wanted list.

The couple’s attorney, Davout Wolhuter, on Wednesday told The Star they were “totally freaked out” by the court’s ruling, which has overturned the Pretoria High Court’s 2008 decision that the SA-US extradition treaty was not properly enacted into law.

He confirmed that he had been in contact with Interpol Inspector Milton Mendes to arrange for his Cape Town-based clients’ voluntary arrest and appearance in an undecided magistrate’s court.

“Their arrest and appearance should take place within the next few days. Meanwhile, we are studying the judgment and we will consider mounting any legal challenge that we can to prevent our clients from being extradited,” Wolhuter said.

Time is running out for Van Rooyen, Brown and alleged drug smuggler Nello Quagliani, who have been involved in legal wrangles over their extradition from as early as 2004.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Tlali Tlali on Wednesday confirmed that “all outstanding extradition matters (involving the SA-US extradition deal) will be processed as quickly as possible”.

The Concourt ruling, delivered yesterday by Justice Albie Sachs, will also enable the state to extradite alleged Fidentia fraudster Steven Goodwin from America back to South Africa.

Goodwin, who is currently languishing in a Los Angeles jail, had belatedly joined Van Rooyen, Brown and Quagliani in their failed bid to have the SA-US extradition treaty invalidated.

His attorney, Amish Kika, yesterday declined to comment on the Concourt ruling, explaining that he had yet to speak to Goodwin about the decision.

Also on the NPA’s list of two dozen outstanding extradition cases is that of 26-year-old father Jonathan Ells, who faces 25 years in an American jail for his alleged distribution of hundreds of child rape movies and hardcore images of child abuse.

Ells and his mother left the US after he was questioned by Washington police about child pornography traced back to his American father Donald’s home.

At that stage, Ells – who has American citizenship – had been living with his father for a year. Court documents show that Ells was 19 when he allegedly ran his child porn ring under the name “Pre-teen P***y”.

A forensic examination of Ells’s computer by American police expert Sergeant Keith Huntley later uncovered hundreds of files containing child pornography – including movies showing the rape of a 2- to 4-year-old girl “wearing a white nightgown with pink flowers on it”.

While Ells has refused to comment on the accusations against him, his wife and mother maintain he is innocent.

His wife Cristina insisted in an email to The Star that her “lovely, caring husband and the best father a child could have” was a “victim and not a monster”.

And, in an online blog, Ells’s mother Janette said her son was being “crucified and pushed like Humpty Dumpty”.

Meanwhile, the attorney for John Stratton – who the state wants to extradite in connection with the death of mining magnate Brett Kebble – has denied that the Concourt ruling would quash the Australian’s challenge to the SA-Australia extradition agreement.

Stratton’s attorney, Rael Gootkin, on Wednesday stressed that Stratton’s legal challenge was being bought on different grounds from that of Van Rooyen, Brown and Quagliani.

“We believe that our client’s case is distinguishable from that of Van Rooyen, but we are still awaiting the Constitutional Court’s directions on if and how we can proceed with it,” he said.

Stratton’s lawyers want to argue that SA’s extradition agreement with Australia is invalid because provincial Speakers did not have mandates to vote it into law.

    • Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20090122012543250C184968