Foreign Affairs P.S confirms U.S. gave assurance Mohameds will not be re-extradited to third country

Cross-examination of Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sharon Roopchand-Edwards continued on Wednesday and saw her confirming that the United States has assured Guyana that Nazar and Azruddin Mohamed will not be extradited to any third country without the Government of Guyana’s consent.

The confirmation came as defence attorney Roysdale Forde, SC, pressed the senior government official on diplomatic correspondence exchanged between Guyana and the United States following the October 2025 extradition request.

During the afternoon session before Magistrate Judy Latchman, the court was presented with Note 458, the official response from the United States, which was tendered into evidence.

Reading from the document, Forde pointed to a key passage stating that while the United States is not obligated under the treaty to provide such assurances, it nonetheless confirmed that it would not re-extradite the Mohameds to a third state for any offences committed prior to their extradition, without the consent of the Government of Guyana.

Roopchand-Edwards agreed.

“Yes,” she told the court when asked to confirm the contents of the diplomatic note.

The exchange formed part of a deeper examination into Note Verbale 1680 of 2025, which Guyana had sent to the US Embassy requesting assurances tied to Article Seven of the extradition treaty— the principle of “speciality,” which restricts how extradited persons may be treated.

Under questioning, Roopchand-Edwards maintained that the response from the United States directly addressed the concerns raised by Guyana.

“458 is the assurance for 1680 of 2025,” she stated.

The defence had earlier argued that there is a distinction between “assurances” and “undertakings,” but the Permanent Secretary maintained that, in her understanding, the two terms were effectively the same in this context.

The afternoon session focused heavily on whether the assurances requested by Guyana were properly grounded and whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs conducted any assessment of how such treaty provisions are applied by the United States.

Roopchand-Edwards acknowledged that she did not personally conduct any such assessment and was unaware of any report within the ministry examining how the treaty is applied to Guyanese citizens.

“I didn’t do any assessments,” she said.

 

She also confirmed that after receiving the extradition documents in October 2025, she did not forward them to a legal officer to determine whether they complied with the extradition treaty or the Fugitive Offenders Act.

Instead, she said the documents were transmitted to the Minister of Home Affairs.

Further, she told the court that she acted on advice from the ministry’s legal department when dispatching the request for assurances, and that the note was sent both by email and by hand to the US Embassy.

The morning session had focused largely on discrepancies in the Ministry’s correspondence records, including an admitted error in an October 29 entry and questions about when staff were informed of the receipt of the extradition documents.

Further cross-examination of the Permanent Secretary was deferred, with the matter set to continue next Tuesday, March 24.

 

 

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