Four months ago, we told you how the Court of Appeal gave Rhett Fuller his first major break when the court allowed his appeal of the decision by Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington to surrender him to the US.
The main ground by which the Court allowed Fuller's appeal was that the Minister, within his wide jurisdiction, did not consider whether or not the delayed extradition process was unjust and oppressive to him.
In addition, the court provided a list of guidelines to the Minister for a second hearing on this matter, which came up today.
The hearing held at the Foreign Affairs office in Belize City was very brief, and when his attorney Eamon Courtney exited, the media asked him to give an update.
He told us that this time, the Minister is taking steps to carefully consider how the extradition will affect his family.
Eamon Courtenay, S.C. - Attroney for Rhett Fuller
"Today was scheduled to make representation to the Hon. Wilfred Elrington for him to decide whether to surrender Rhett to the United States Government. The Minister looked at the evidence that we provided to him and felt that he should give Mr. Fuller an opportunity to get evidence of an expert. Mr. Fuller and his wife have a daughter that is very sick, who is autistic and the Minister would like expert evidence as to the effect of a surrender of Mr. Fuller on his daughter. So he has given Mr. Fuller 6 weeks to provide expert evidence in that regard. We are very grateful for that opportunity - we had two letters before the Minister from the experts that are available in Belize but now he has given us time to get an expert from the US that actually diagnosed Gabriela and to see if that expert could give an affidavit so that he has sworn evidence from that expert. We hope with that evidence it will weigh very heavily on the Minister to see whether or not Mr. Fuller is to be extradited."
Daniel Ortiz
"Is this an indication that your client's case is going well?"
Eamon Courtenay
"No, I don't want to reach that conclusion at all - we need to get an expert who is going to give the Minister the evidence from a professional view point."
As noted in the interview, Fuller must submit this evidence from the expert witness within 6 weeks.
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