Bail denied as Roger Khan trial continues…
witnesses, wiretaps and 800 pages of evidence ready
• Prosecution
Kaieteur News
January 17, 2007
A dejected Shaheed ‘Roger' Khan left the Brooklyn Federal Court facing the cold hard fact that he will not be a free man if a jury convicts him.
According to Capitol News' Enrico Woolford, who is in New York covering the trial, it was getting bitterly cold outside as Khan left the court realising that he may be forced to spend a long time in prison as Judge Dora Irizarry denied him bail claiming, among other things, that Khan, when he faced lesser sentences several years ago, fled to Guyana and never returned. Family members, who have been gathering at each hearing since Khan was arrested last summer, were at the courtroom again. Khan's brother, Raffique, was supposed to testify on Khan's behalf, but did not as the defense lawyers made a desperate attempt to get the court to forget Khan's past and seek his pre-trial liberty.
His attorney, John Bergendahl, claimed that the indictment was constitutionally defective, because it did not state with whom the defendant conspired, and from where. He explained, after the bail hearing, that the Prosecution could seek to correct this deficiency in the superseding indictments.
The court gave the Prosecutors until February 26 to institute a superseding indictment, which the US Government had indicated it would have done.
The US Prosecutor, Paige Petersen, told the court that as far as the US is concerned, Shaheed ‘Roger' Khan is a drug kingpin, and was at the top of the drug organisation out of Guyana shipping drugs into the US through various means.
He was able to isolate himself from the regular couriers and others in the organisation, but the US Government, through its attorneys, argued that that is why the US enacted the Drug Kingpins Act for persons like Shaheed ‘Roger' Khan.
Khan's other attorney, Robert Simels, had argued that Khan was not running from the US but was trying to run back to the US after there was lawlessness in Guyana .
Judge Dora Irizarry rejected this argument, saying that Khan had been a fugitive and made no attempt to return. She noted that in the Federal Court system the Prosecution has to show probable cause that the defendant may have committed the crimes for which he is charged, and in this case, the US Government has shown probable cause.
The US claims that, in Khan's case, it has cooperating witnesses lined up along with wiretaps and more than 800 pages of evidence so far. It is trying to get even more evidence from Suriname , but Khan's attorneys have challenged the right of the US to get at Khan's documents which were seized from him in Suriname . That has delayed the presentation of that evidence. Khan offered US$2 million dollars in real estate in the US for bail, and ten guarantors to sign for him, electronic surveillance, and a private security firm to monitor him at a private residence in Long Island , but all of that was rejected and Khan will be in court again on February 26 at 11:00 hours. At that time, he will face even more charges in the superseding indictment.