Jamaica

The requested person was extradited from Jamaica to the United States pursuant to a request concerning murder, attempted murder and drug-related offences, but was initially tried and convicted in a different case for an offence not covered by the surrender order. In subsequent civil proceedings, he sought additional constitutional, vindicatory and compensatory damages from the Jamaican authorities, arguing that his extradition had been unlawful and that the principle of speciality had been breached. The Court of Appeal held that the extradition order and the detention preceding surrender were lawful, that no appeal to the Privy Council was pending at the time of surrender and that the Jamaican Government was not responsible for the United States’ subsequent conduct. Although the court expressly found that Article 7 of the applicable extradition treaty had been breached, it held that the breach had been committed by the requesting State and did not entail liability of the requested State; the appeal concerning damages was therefore dismissed.

The appellant challenged his detention pending extradition to the United States, seeking both constitutional relief and a writ of habeas corpus. The Court of Appeal confirmed that no appeal lay against the Full Court’s refusal to grant habeas corpus, but found that the separate constitutional challenge had remained a live issue and had not been expressly abandoned. Since the judges below had mistakenly treated that claim as abandoned, they had made no judicial determination of the alleged infringement of the appellant’s constitutional rights. The matter was therefore remitted to the Full Court for determination of the constitutional application.