US to ratchet up case against Roger Khan
Stabroek News
February 26, 2007
The US Government is expected to present additional charges against Guyanese businessman, Roger Khan when he makes another court appearance in New York this afternoon.
It is not clear what those would be, but according to reports they are expected to be all narcotics-related. Khan is before the court on a charge of conspiracy to import cocaine into the US, but the US Government had indicated last month that it would file superseding charges against the Guyanese and Stabroek News understands that at today's hearing those additional indictments would be presented.
Khan's case would come up for hearing around 3 pm New York time. The matter was earlier scheduled for 11 am but the defence asked for it to be rescheduled.
The United States District Court Eastern District of New York unsealed the indictment on May 3, but Khan was indicted on April 13.
According to the indictment, the Grand Jury charged that between January 2001 and March 2006 within the Eastern District of New York and elsewhere, Shaheed Khan also called Roger Khan and 'Short Man' together with others, knowingly and intentionally conspired to import a controlled substance into the US. The offence involved five kilogrammes or more of a substance containing cocaine, the document said. According to the court documents Khan was charged in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 963 and 952(a). Section 952(a) makes it a crime to import a controlled substance into the US and Section 963 makes it a crime to conspire to do the same.
Khan's US lawyers, John Bergendahl and Roberts Simels have argued that the charge against Khan is baseless and they had asked the US Government to withdraw it in a motion filed last year June.
Khan is expected to go on trial by the middle of this year and as such the US Government has beefed up security around the Guyanese. He was transferred from the Nassau County jail to a federal prison in Manhattan where security is tighter. Khan's lawyer Simels has complained about the restrictions placed on his client and has asked the court to release him from what he described as administrative detention at the federal jailhouse. Simels said that the cell in which the Guyanese was being held is reserved for terrorists.
Under US law, Khan faces a minimum of ten years to a maximum of life in prison for the offence based on the amount of cocaine imported.
Following the indictment Khan had issued a statement through his lawyers while on the run saying that his charge was motivated by political considerations. He accused the US Government, the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force and the main opposition PNCR of being complicit in silencing him for the General Elections. He also said that the USA, PNCR, GDF and GPF viewed him as someone who had the will and capacity to fight crime and to protect the people of Guyana against a coup d'etat.
In that statement he also mentioned that during the crime spree in 2002, he worked closely with the crime-fighting section of the police force and provided them with assistance and information at his own expense. He said that his participation was instrumental in curbing crime during that period. During the period Khan referred to, several death squads or 'phantom squads' emerged and some of the escapees of the February 23, 2002 jailbreak were gunned down in murky circumstances.
Khan along with ex-policeman Sean Belfield, Paul Rodrigues and Lloyd Roberts had fled Guyana for neighbouring Suriname after raids began over the missing Army AK 47 rifles. The Joint Services had conducted a number of raids on his properties in search of him and with the US indictment that was unsealed later the Guyanese in an attempt to dodge local lawmen ran to Suriname. He was however, caught along with his three bodyguards during a huge drug bust in Paramaribo in June last year and was subsequently released for deportation to Guyana. On the way, he was seized in Trinidad and flown to New York via Miami.