Roger Khan, who was released from a US prison almost one month ago after serving near to ten years of a 15-year sentence for drug trafficking is expected to be back in Guyana within the next two to three weeks once the request for the issuance of his emergency travel documents is approved.
Contacted today, his local attorney Glenn Hanoman told Stabroek News that he has been in contact with Khan who recently indicated to him his expectations of being back in Guyana soon.
“…..I spoke to him (Khan), I think two days ago and he said to me that he believes that he will be back within two to three weeks,” Hanoman noted.
Hanoman explained that he had expected that Khan would be back in Guyana already.
“We had felt that he was coming back a long time now but none of us anticipated all these delays because he had waived a lot of his rights so we didn’t know we had to go back before a Judge,” Hanoman said.
A week ago, Hanoman had informed Stabroek News that Khan was awaiting the issuance of an emergency travel certificate in order for him to travel back to Guyana.
He had said that the American authorities were waiting on the Guyana Embassy in Washington to issue the document so that they could accompany Khan back here.
Hanoman had said that he and his client were both unaware if the process has started as yet. “Apparently the travel document can be emailed but we don’t have any clue and my client is not being….they don’t tell him anything. I am in touch with my client…but they don’t tell him if the process has started or if they have requested it,” he had stated.
Stabroek News understands that the embassy in Washington has since received the request which is reportedly being processed. This process is expected to take a “few” weeks.
Hanoman said from the inception Khan has been cooperative in an effort to avoid any delays.
“The embassy had wanted things like copy of birth certificate and photographs and so, so he (Khan) had even sent all of these things in through his lawyer even before hand to try and speed things up,” he said.
The 47-year-old Khan is currently in the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE is the law enforcement agency of the federal government of the US tasked to enforce the immigration laws of the country and to investigate criminal and terrorist activity of transnational organisations and aliens within the United States.
ICE on its website had said that Khan was “in custody” at the Krome North Service Processing Center detention facility.
Khan recently completed serving almost ten years in jail. He had been sentenced to two terms of 15 years and one term of 10 years, all of which was to be served concurrently.
He was sentenced after he pleaded guilty to trafficking in 150 kilogrammes of cocaine, witness tampering and gun-running.
In October of 2009, while sentencing Khan, US Federal Judge Dora Irizarry had stated that following his prison term he would be placed on five years’ supervised release, but would more than likely be deported.
She had warned him that if he re-entered the US illegally after deportation, he would be arrested and sentenced to a much longer prison term than 15 years.
