By Damion Mitchell, Fern Whyte —-
Stephen Rosen, the lead attorney for West Kingston crime lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke has levelled a major allegation against the United States Government over the extradition saga involving his client.
Rosen has accused the United States Government of working with the People’s National Party (PNP) by using the Coke extradition issue to drive the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) from office in December 2011.
“He left Jamaica, the ruling party was thrown out of office and the Government hand-picked by the United States took over,” Rosen told reporters after Coke’s sentencing on racketeering conviction was postponed today.
“We think there was a lot of politics in Jamaica, we think there was a lot of politics by the US to have him (Coke) extradited.
“The Secretary of State supports the PNP,” Rosen insisted.
Coke was extradited to the US in June 2010 after a nine-month wrangling between the JLP administration and the United States Government.
The Government at the time had said it needed more evidence to support the indictment against Coke so that the warrant to proceed with the extradition could be issued.
The administration also insisted that the telephone evidence against Coke had been gathered illegally.
But the United States was firm that the intercepted telephone conversations had been covered by treaty between Kingston and Washington.
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