It seems that Shaheed Roger Khan will have to wait until late September to have his day in a Brooklyn court on drugs charges, after prosecutors from the Eastern New York District Attorney’s Office requested and were granted another 45 days to build their case, citing its complexity. This was after Khan’s lead defence attorney, John Bergendahl, had filed a motion in a New York court asking for the dismissal of his client’s indictment because of its “cryptic form” and the possibility that Khan could go into the trial “blind”.

Khan, a controversial businessman from Guyana, was indicted in April this year on charges of conspiring to import five kilograms or more of cocaine into the U.S between January 2001 and March 2006. This followed and was then followed up by several run-ins with authorities in Guyana and Suriname, respectively, over alleged weapons and drug smuggling offences. (For the complete details and timeline in this case, see my previous article.)

Also present in the court was Khan’s lawyer from Trinidad and Tobago, Odai Ramischand, who is preparing to file a motion challenging the circumstances of Khan’s removal from Trinidad and Tobago’s international airport while en route back to Guyana after having been deported from Suriname.

Khan had been intercepted at the airport by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and whisked away to Miami and then New York on the basis of what they say was a provisional arrest warrant issued by a New York judge. The Guyanese government demanded more information while his lawyers strongly protested, accusing U.S authorities of abducting him; this was denied. I don’t think they will get very far.

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