AFTER a five-month interruption, the extradition case involving Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed and his father, businessman Nazar Mohamed, is set to resume before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
The matter will return for hearings in early September following a Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling that cleared the way for the proceedings to continue.
Chief Magistrate Judy Latchman has scheduled the matter for September 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10 after the region’s highest court lifted the stay that had brought the proceedings to a halt in March while it considered the Mohameds’ legal challenge.
The father and son argued that the extradition process was unlawfully initiated because Home Affairs Minister Oneidge Walrond was allegedly affected by actual and apparent bias when she signed the Authority to Proceed (ATP). The ATP is the statutory document required under Guyana’s Fugitive Offenders (Amendment) Act before extradition proceedings can begin.
In a unanimous judgement, however, the CCJ concluded that while the rule against bias applies to the Minister’s decision-making, the Mohameds failed to prove that the issuance of the ATP had been improperly influenced. The court found no evidence that irrelevant considerations had been taken into account or that the Minister had ignored matters she was legally required to consider.

Although the CCJ granted the applicants special leave to appeal, it dismissed the appeal itself, effectively affirming the decisions of both the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
It also ordered that each side bears its own costs before the CCJ, while leaving the issue of costs in the lower courts to be determined at a later stage.
The ruling clears the way for the Magistrates’ Court to resume the committal hearing, where the prosecution is expected to continue presenting evidence in support of the United States’ extradition request. At the conclusion of that hearing, Chief Magistrate Latchman must determine whether the evidence satisfies the legal requirements for the Mohameds to be committed for extradition. If she finds that the statutory threshold has been met, the matter will proceed to the next stage under the Fugitive Offenders Act.
The extradition proceedings were initiated on October 31, 2025, after the United States formally requested the surrender of the Mohameds a day earlier. Following the issuance of an ATP by Home Affairs Minister Oneidge Walrond, Chief Magistrate Judy Latchman issued warrants for their arrest, formally commencing the proceedings.
The Mohameds were subsequently granted $150,000 bail each, while the substantive committal hearing commenced on January 6, 2026. As part of their bail conditions, they must surrender their passports and report to the Ruimveldt Police Station every Friday pending the outcome of the extradition proceedings.
Since then, the prosecution has called only one witness — Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Sharon Roopchand-Edwards.
Her evidence centres on the receipt and transmission of the United States’ extradition request and the official handling of related diplomatic correspondence. Her cross-examination remained unfinished when the CCJ intervened in March, meaning the hearing is expected to resume from that point when the matter returns before the Chief Magistrate.
The prosecution is being led by Jamaican King’s Counsel Terrence Williams, assisted by attorneys Herbert McKenzie and Celine Deidrick, while the Mohameds are represented by Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, along with attorneys Siand Dhurjon and Damien Da Silva.
The United States is seeking the surrender of the Mohameds to face an 11-count indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. They jointly face allegations including conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, while Azruddin is separately charged over the alleged importation of a 2020 Lamborghini Roadster SVJ into Guyana.
According to U.S. prosecutors, the charges stem from an alleged years-long scheme in which large quantities of gold were exported from Guyana using false customs declarations and undervalued invoices, allowing more than US$50 million in taxes and customs duties to be evaded.
Investigators also allege that reused government export seals were used to facilitate shipments, one of which, valued at approximately US$5.3M, was intercepted at Miami International Airport.
The allegations underpin sanctions imposed in June 2024 by the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) against the Mohameds and several of their associated companies. U.S. authorities accused them of participating in gold smuggling, tax evasion and public corruption, allegations the father and son have repeatedly denied.
The investigation involved years of co-operation between Guyanese and American law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).