Time to end the Mehul Choksi embarrassment on Dominica’s image

Roseau, Dominica, June 17th, 2021:

The Parliamentary Opposition urges the Government to bring an end to the embarrassment being suffered by Dominica in the international community on account of its apparent collusion in the May 23rd, 2021 abduction of wanted Indian diamond
trader Mehul Choksi in Antigua and Barbuda and his forced removal to Dominica.
Mr. Choksi, the subject of an Interpol Red Corner Alert, is already at the mercy of the justice system in Antigua and Barbuda where he resides as a citizen by investment and is challenging, in the High Court, an extradition request from India and a bid to revoke his Antigua and Barbuda citizenship.

Now, Mr. Choksi who was received at sea by Dominica police officers from his abductors and brought into the country against his will is before the local court defending prosecution for illegal entry into Dominica and seeking a ruling that he has been unlawfully imprisoned. As these cases snail through the court process, the injury to Dominica’s image as a responsible member of the family of nations intensifies.
The justice systems of Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica are under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC). His alleged misdemeanors in India notwithstanding, it is a crime against humanity to violently remove Mr. Choksi from his constitutional rights and rule of law protection in one part of the ECSC jurisdiction to another part for the benefit of
those who want to short-circuit the extradition proceedings for his return to India.

According to Interpol, a Red Corner Notice (RCN) is not an international arrest warrant. It is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. Given pending legal action to have him extradited to India in Antigua and Barbuda, the RCN for Mehul Choksi does not have the same effect there as it does in Dominica where he is a stranger. And that is exactly what the ruling party politicians of India, Antigua, and Barbuda, and Dominica hoped to exploit for a speedier return of the diamond trader to India. But we are rule of law people; rule of law governments; and rule of law countries in the global community. Let Mehul Choksi and all the citizens of the world
enjoy the protection, privileges, and sanctions of the rule of law.

Let the due process take its course. We believe the behavior of the Cabinet of Ministers and the law enforcement authorities in Dominica makes a mockery of the judicial system in the ECSC and disgraces Dominica as a rogue element in the family of nations willfully undermining the rule of law foundation for the advancement of civility in the global community.
It is time to stop this unnecessary scandal in Dominica’s international affairs and that simply means ending the court matters in Dominica with a consent order by Mehul Choksi and his Dominican prosecutors that he is returned to Antigua and Barbuda without further delay.