Trinidad: High Court blocks deportation of Jamaican man ac­cused of drug traf­fick­ing

(Trinidad Guardian) A High Court Judge has blocked the de­por­ta­tion of a Ja­maican man ac­cused of drug traf­fick­ing.

O’Neil Williams was or­dered to be de­port­ed on No­vem­ber 10, 2017, but Im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials on­ly sought to ex­e­cute the or­der at 8 am on Thurs­day.

 
Hours be­fore the sched­uled de­por­ta­tion, Williams at­tor­neys Pe­ter Carter and Shan­ice Ramd­han filed for an emer­gency in­junc­tion.

High Court Judge Eleanor Don­ald­son-Hon­ey­well held an emer­gency hear­ing at the Hall of Jus­tice in Port-of-Spain on Wednes­day night and even­tu­al­ly grant­ed the in­junc­tion at 11.35 pm. She al­so grant­ed Williams leave to pur­sue a law­suit against the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion, in which he is al­leg­ing that his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were breached.

In the in­junc­tion ap­pli­ca­tion, Williams’ lawyers said that he was await­ing tri­al for drug traf­fick­ing.

On Sep­tem­ber 22, 2014, Williams plead­ed guilty to a sep­a­rate co­caine traf­fick­ing charge and was sen­tenced to three years in prison.

Williams ap­pealed as he claimed that while he plead­ed guilty to the of­fence, he chal­lenged po­lice claims over his ar­rest.

In March, Ap­pel­late Judges Al­ice Yorke-Soo Hon and Mark Mo­hammed up­held his ap­peal as they ruled that his plea should have been changed based on his al­le­ga­tions.

The Ap­peal Court did not or­der a re­tri­al for Williams, as at the time, he had al­ready spent more than his po­ten­tial sen­tence de­tained at the Im­mi­gra­tion De­ten­tion Cen­tre in Aripo.

Al­though Don­ald­son-Hon­ey­well halt­ed Williams’ de­por­ta­tion, she did not or­der his re­lease.

Williams’ le­gal chal­lenge over his de­por­ta­tion is ex­pect­ed to come up for a hear­ing lat­er this year.