HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html
Winlaw Man Imprisoned at U.S. Request
Pubdate: Tue, 29 Oct 2002
Source: Nelson Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 Nelson Daily News
Contact: http://www.nelsondailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/288
Author: Darren Davidson
WINLAW MAN IMPRISONED AT U.S. REQUEST
A Winlaw man remains in a jail near Amsterdam, Netherlands after nearly two
months waiting in vain for the federal government to have him brought back
home. Patrick Roberts is praying the ordeal ends soon. And it might.
Roberts was arrested Sept. 4, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, en route to a
connecting flight between Canada and Ireland, where he had been vacationing.
"The legs went out from underneath me," says Roberts, speaking from the
Harlem Prison, just outside Amsterdam, where he has been imprisoned since
early last month.
"It was unbelievable. The (Dutch authorities) said `we're very sorry, but
the DEA has asked us to arrest you.'"
Roberts is accused of conspiring to smuggle marijuana to the U.S. He was
charged three years ago, along with a number of other men arrested after a
lengthy sting operation by the RCMP and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Roberts' trial was supposed to have started last month in Kelowna on Sept.
9.
Prosecutors were aware Roberts had left the country, along with his partner
and her 16-year-old son, both of whom also live in Winlaw. He had planned to
return to B.C. for the start of his trail.
That's when he was picked up at the Amsterdam airport, at the request of
American law officials. Roberts is facing almost identical charges in the
U.S. stemming from the 1999 sting.
Now Roberts wants to know why the Federal Justice Department won't have him
extradited back to Canada.
"I have every right to come back to Canada and defend myself," he said,
adding he is scared stiff about facing the charges in the U.S., where
marijuana trafficking penalties are considerably more harsh than in Canada.
"God knows what can happen to you in the United States," Roberts says. The
U.S. charges could land Roberts in jail for 20 years.
At this point, any hope of the imprisonment ending hangs on the U.S.
warrant, which expires after 60 days, on November 3rd.
If U.S. authorities make no further requests to hold Roberts, he'll be free
to return to Canada. If not, he will be stuck wondering and waiting.
"I'm locked up pretty much all of the time, because of the time difference
it's very difficult for me to keep in touch with my family and my children.
It's been a terrible ordeal for me."
The Department of Justice will not comment on Roberts case directly.
Department of Justice Director of Communications Lyse Canton says the
department can't comment on an extradition request until the accused
receives a notice of the request first.
The lawyer for a man co-accused in the 1999 sting says he can't speculate on
the Justice Department's motivation in delaying Roberts' return to Canada.
But Ian Donaldson says he knows of many cases in which Canada has acted on
request of someone's extradition in a "matter of hours, if they feel like
it."
"I can say that if I were a Canadian citizen in Patrick Robert's case, I
would hope very much that my country requested me back, so that I could face
my charges in Canada. One could rationally view the duty of Canada to its
citizens to encompass that kind of request."
Roberts, an admitted "life-long opponent of the RCMP" who holds a masters
degree from Ireland's prestigious Trinity College, has his own ideas about
why he's still locked up.
Roberts has been a main source in two award-winning CBC documentaries on
RCMP brutality and the DEA's cross-border involvement in RCMP drug smuggling
investigations. One story found that police had paid a cocaine dealer
$440,000 to help bust a pot-smuggling ring.
Roberts says he has more damning evidence against the RCMP that will come
out in his upcoming trial.
He says it is within the federal government's power to bring him back to
Canada.
"From that I conclude that this was deliberately arranged to keep me out of
Canada and to remove me from this case."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh