3 weeks ago
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Guyana’s acting Chief Justice Navindra Singh on Tuesday said he will deliver a ruling on January 5 on a constitutional challenge to the Fugitive Offenders (Amendment) Act brought by U.S.-indicted businessmen Azruddin Mohamed and Nazar Mohamed.
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The father-and-son duo filed the application in the High Court seeking to block their extradition to the United States, where they are facing charges including money laundering, tax evasion and wire fraud before a Miami court.
Their attorneys—Siand Dhurjon, Damien Da Silva and Roysdale Forde—argued that key provisions of the Fugitive Offenders (Amendment) Act, particularly the Authority to Proceed (ATP) that initiated the extradition process, are unconstitutional, void and of no legal effect.
Named as respondents in the proceedings are Home Affairs Minister Oneidge Walrond, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, and Magistrate Judy Latchman, who is presiding over the substantive extradition case.
The Mohameds are seeking several remedies, including an order quashing the Authority to Proceed by writ of certiorari and declarations that Ministers Walrond and Nandlall have no lawful role in issuing such authority. They are also asking the court to prohibit the ministers from any further involvement in the extradition process and to suspend the ongoing proceedings before Magistrate Latchman pending the outcome of the High Court challenge.
The substantive extradition proceedings are scheduled to continue before Magistrate Latchman on January 6.
The constitutional challenge was filed just days after Magistrate Latchman dismissed a separate application by the Mohameds that sought to have their extradition case referred to the High Court. In her December 10 ruling, Latchman said the issues raised had already been settled by Guyana’s higher courts and did not warrant further consideration at the magistracy level. She described the application as “frivolous and vexatious” and an “abuse of the process.”
Speaking with reporters after Tuesday’s court proceedings, Attorney General Nandlall characterized the latest challenge as a delaying tactic.
“In my view, no serious issues have been raised,” he said, while noting that the arguments would still have to be heard. “I believe this is part and parcel of the expressed intent of one of the applicants, Azruddin Mohamed, to delay this matter…I don’t think that they will succeed. Extradition law is quite settled; it’s a straightforward area of law now. There are complicated extradition cases. This is certainly not one of them.”
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Nandlall further emphasized that the Fugitive Offenders Act already provides extensive safeguards and avenues for appeal in extradition matters.
“The law itself…has in it a very elaborate and comprehensive system by which a person who is aggrieved by a decision in the extradition proceedings can challenge that decision,” he said, noting that rulings can be challenged in the High Court and appealed to the Court of Appeal, with proceedings stayed while those challenges are determined.
“The extradition law itself has built-in mechanisms that provide a comprehensive regime of safeguards and due process,” he added. “There is no need, therefore, for these collateral excursions and challenges…They are intended, I think, to delay, and hopefully they will not succeed.”
The extradition of the Mohameds is being pursued under the Guyana–United Kingdom extradition treaty, which remains in force in Guyana under Section 4(1)(a) of the Fugitive Offenders Act, Cap. 10:04, as amended by Act No. 10 of 2024. The formal extradition request was submitted by the U.S. government on October 30, 2025.
The businessmen were indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on 11 criminal charges, including wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. The charges are primarily linked to the export of gold to the United States by their company, Mohamed’s Enterprises.
If convicted, most of the charges carry maximum penalties of up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to US$250,000, while the money laundering charge carries a potential fine of US$500,000 or the value of the laundered property.
The indictment follows sanctions imposed more than a year ago by the U.S. government on the Mohameds, their businesses and former Home Affairs Ministry Permanent Secretary Mae Thomas, stemming from the same allegations. According to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, Mohamed’s Enterprises omitted more than 10,000 kilograms of gold from import and export declarations between 2019 and 2023, allegedly avoiding more than US$50 million in duty taxes owed to the Government of Guyana.
English (US) ·