GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Lawyers for the leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, Azruddin Mohamed, and his billionaire father, Nazar “Shell” Mohamed, are objecting to efforts by the prosecution to bring forward the date for their hearing in the extradition to the United States.
Overnight, US prosecutors, led by King’s Counsel Jamaican Terrence Williams, asked the Magistrates’ Court to expedite the extradition hearing to this month.
On Thursday, Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman set February 5 and 6 for the hearing to resume, allowing the defendants time to consider new evidence, including a statement by Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd.
Defence attorneys – Roysdale Forde, Siand Dhurjon, and Damien Da Silva-in objecting to the proposal to change the dates, say they have iron-clad commitments and cannot agree to a change of dates.
“No explanation has been advanced for Mr Williams KC’s subsequent change of position on this night,” they said in a letter to the Magistrate’s Court.
In his letter to the Clerk of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, Destiny Woodman Williams requested that the magistrate be asked to consider advancing the hearing, in line with her expressed inclination to set an earlier date.
“Counsel for the Requesting State (US) has rescheduled their diaries and is now available to appear on or before January 20, 2026, or the week of January 26.
“In the circumstances, and with due respect for the court’s processes, we respectfully ask that Her Worship consider convening, with notice to all parties, to the earliest fixture hearing date that is convenient to all parties and the court’s diary,” Williams said.
But Forde said he has “entered into inflexible professional and personal commitments which render him unavailable during the period newly suggested” by Prosecutor Williams and that Dhurjon and Mr. Da Silva are in a similar position.
‘Each is unavoidably bound by specific engagements (including much-needed post-cancer treatment requiring 2 weeks of convalescence) which can admit of no rearrangement and would, in any event, be absent from the Georgetown jurisdiction for a significant portion of the suggested period.
“In those circumstances, counsel for the requested persons are unable to consent to any departure from Her Worship’s well-considered adjournment orders,” they wrote, noting that the Trinidad and Tobago-based attorney, Rajiv Persad, is also unavailable on account of his court diary and his judicial assignment.
The defence lawyers reminded that the adjournment orders made on Thursday followed an extended discourse, culminating in the fixation of the present dates, which were expressly confirmed as suitable to all parties.
They said they would be willing to consider an adjournment after 5 and 6 February, “should that course prove more convenient to our learned friends representing the requesting State (US).”
The United States government had, on October 30, 2025, requested the extradition of the 76-year-old businessman and his 38-year -old son after they were accused of multiple charges, including wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and customs-related violations connected to an alleged US$50 million gold export and tax evasion scheme.
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