Ent all these events occurred on local soil? Ent this action is pursuant to US grand jury action?
If a Mongolian citizen had died in Trinidad under the same facts, would we be today sending the accused to Ulan Bator? I don't think so.
I may have missed some elements of the procedural background in this case but lehme ask? What's so wrong with the accused being punished for the crime by serving time in a Trinidadian institution?
+++
U.S. Department of Justice
Jeffrey A. Taylor
United States Attorney
for the District of Columbia
Judiciary Center
555 4th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Information, Contact Public Affairs
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 Channing Phillips (202) 514-6933
Second Trinidadian pleads guilty to hostage-taking resulting in death of American man in Trinidad
Washington, D.C. - A Trinidadian national, Winston Gittens, has pleaded guilty to the hostage-taking resulting in the death in Trinidad of U.S. citizen Balram Maharaj in 2005, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge of the Miami Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today.
Gittens, 41, formerly of Lower Santa Cruz, Trinidad, pleaded guilty today before the Honorable John D. Bates in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. to the charges of hostage-taking resulting in death and conspiracy to commit hostage-taking resulting in death. The victim had been visiting relatives in Trinidad when he was taken hostage. Gittens faces a maximum sentence of up to life imprisonment under the hostage-taking statute. The United States has agreed not to seek the death penalty against Gittens. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
“The horrible facts of this case are a prime example of why the Department of Justice is so committed to investigating and prosecuting persons who seek to prey upon U.S. citizens and residents when they are abroad,” stated U.S. Attorney Taylor. “The Trinidadian law enforcement authorities did an outstanding job in this case, and the efforts of the Extra-territorial Squad of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, based in Miami, were extraordinary.”
FBI Special Agent in Charge Solomon stated, "The arrest and extradition of the defendants in this case is the direct result of the outstanding partnership the United States has with Trinidad and Tobago. Due to the combined investigative efforts of the Trinidadian law enforcement community and the FBI, justice will be served."
Gittens was arrested in Trinidad and extradited to the United States on May 12, 2006. Three other individuals, including Russel Jerry Joseph, have been extradited to the United States in connection with the hostage-taking of Maharaj. Joseph pled guilty on July 26, 2006, to the same charges as Gittens. A third individual is scheduled to begin trial on April 30, 2007, and a fourth defendant, who first arrived in the United States on February 22, 2007, was arraigned on February 23, 2007. Additionally, the superseding Indictment in the matter charges eight other individuals, as to each of whom the United States has requested, or is requesting, extradition from Trinidad and Tobago.
In April 2005, the victim, Balram Maharaj, a naturalized American citizen of Trinidadian heritage, returned to his native land to visit his family. According to government’s evidence, the ordeal began for Maharaj when, on April 6, 2005, he was seized by armed gunmen as he sat relaxing at the Samaan Tree Bar. Maharaj, 61, suffered from poor health and was held hostage under very harsh conditions, including depriving him of essential medications, while his abductors demanded a ransom from his family for his release. The dismembered and badly decomposed body of Maharaj was located by the authorities in a remote area of Trinidad on January 8, 2006.
In announcing the guilty plea in the Gittens case, U.S. Attorney Taylor and FBI Special Agent in Charge Solomon praised the hard work of the FBI’s Miami Division Extra-territorial Squad, in particular lead case agents William Clauss and Edgar Cruz, the FBI Evidence Response Team, FBI Assistant Legal Attache Marvin Freeman based in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Anti-Kidnaping Squad and Homicide Bureau, in particular Inspector Johnny Abraham, Detective Corporals Wendell Lucas and Eric Park and Detective Constables Kendell Abraham, Marvin Pinder, Michael Seales, Montgomery Trotman and Phillip Forbes, the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of the Attorney General, Geoffrey Henderson, the Director of Public Prosecutions in Trinidad and Tobago, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Montreal, Canada, the staff of the U.S. Consulate and U.S. Embassy in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and Jeffrey Olson, Trial Attorney, Department of Justice, Office of International Affairs. Furthermore, they praised Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bruce R. Hegyi and Jeanne M. Hauch, who are prosecuting the case.
