7 News Belize

Gary Seawell Fights On In Supreme Court
posted (March 18, 2014)
Five months ago, The Chief Magistrate said that Gary Sewell had a case to answer and that he should be extradited. But today his attorney Arthur Saldivar was back in the Supreme Court fighting the case - challenging the validity of the depositions from the US.

He says the Chief Magistrate did not look at the whole picture. He renewed his argument that the documents supplied by the U.S. government were insufficient. And if the documents were not admissible, then they did not count and there was no case to answer.

He explained outside court:

Arthur Saldivar, Attorney
"What was argued before the Chief Magistrate essentially is the same at what is being argued here that sections 14 and 15 of the extradition act of the UK 1870, speaks only to depositions or statements on oath and where depositions can be properly so-called it can only be done so where there is on the face of the record in the document itself the wording that shows that the maker understand their obligation to tell the truth and appreciates that they would be liable to the penalty of perjury if they should tell a lie. Where that is not there then the document cannot be called a deposition or a statement on oath. In this particular case we are not seeking bail, we are seeking habeas corpus - we are seeking his freedom because we are saying that the detention is unlawful."

In reply, Illiana Swift of the Solicitor General's Office stated that it was not for Belize to determine how the laws of the United States applied in this case

As we've reported, according to US authorities, Gary and his brothers, Mark and Dwayne, allegedly imported cocaine into the US through Mexico by stuffing them in shoes worn by spring breakers - students who would travel to Cancun from the US.

Saldivar's second ground concerned that delay of nine years to the start of the extradition proceeding, coupled with a further six years before the case went to hearing last October. Justice Michelle Arana reserved her judgment.

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