Roger Khan's trial is highly politicised - Simels
Kaieteur News
April 26, 2007
Robert Simels, the attorney for Guyanese businessman Shaheed ‘Roger' Khan, who is facing 18 indictments for drug trafficking, says that his client's trial is politically motivated and that he is extremely confident that the United States Government does not have a case.
Simels, who was in Guyana fine-tuning the defence of the embattled businessman, fielded several questions from the media at a news conference yesterday at Le Meridien Pegasus.
He said that the United States Government will try the matter as a narcotics case, as they seek to avoid any political overtones.
“It is not in the prosecution's interest to have it tried as a political case because that weakens their approach. They hope to put on X number of people who have been charged with criminal activities, who have been convicted, and who now wish to lessen their sentence.
“In the United States, of course, under our rules in criminal procedure, the more you know and the more significant a criminal you are, the better a deal you could get if you cooperate and in this instance, each of these people (they) were guessing, or they hope they will say they were involved in narcotics trafficking, and hope that the jury will be so overwhelmed by that information that they will conclude that Roger Khan is indeed guilty.
“By contrast, we believe that that's not what the evidence will show in any fashion, and that if given the opportunity to present evidence of the political overtones that Roger Khan will be acquitted,” Simels explained.
The Defence Attorney said that under the United States rule, discovery is limited to various items. These items include any statements Roger Khan could have made; pedigree information such as date of birth and prior criminal records.
He also said that the prosecution is required to provide the defence with any scientific tests it has made, including fingerprints, voice analysis and anything of that nature.
“There is no fingerprint analysis; there is no voice print analysis; there is no scientific analysis whatsoever with regards to this case.”
Simels said that the defence was also provided with a series of tape recordings that were previously held back by the prosecution, which they said were relevant.
“We have reviewed those tape recordings, which referred to a different prosecution, and it is our estimate, based upon listening to the tape recordings, that Roger Khan is not referenced nor is he involved in any of those transactions,” the Defence Attorney stated.
Using this as a starting point, the defence team, he said, began investigating all of the potential witnesses who might testify against Roger Khan.
“We have looked at the past testimony of those witnesses, given under oath, as to who they believe the source of the drugs in Guyana might be. Not one witness has identified Roger Khan as being involved. Not one witness knew the name,” Simels said.
He said that the defence has identified for the prosecution in pre-trial litigation, the fact that there are many persons in Guyana who are referred to as ‘Short Man', a nickname that Roger Khan is known by.
Simels added that there are other persons in Queens, New York that are referred to as ‘Short Man' and who are indeed part of the narcotics transaction involving a person named by the prosecution.
“So unless the (US) government has a witness hidden in the woodwork somewhere, which they are not supposedly allowed to do, there will be no witness who can identify Roger Khan…unless they are prepared to lie,” Simels explained.
Some of the witnesses who are all in the United States facing drug trafficking charges are released on bail, while others are in prison.
He said that at the moment there are no Guyanese law enforcement officials listed to testify in the Roger Khan trial.
“They haven't identified a witness list per se , but to the extent that they have provided us with information up to this point, no Guyanese law enforcement official is known to us,” Simels said.
The Defence Attorney said he became involved in the case after he was contacted by relatives of Roger Khan who were in search of an attorney who was not afraid of the United States Government and who had a successful track record.
“I think that the Guyanese Government and the officials here who believe that the United States may be prosecuting Roger Khan properly should be aware of the nature of the people upon whom the Unites States is relying in this case.
“All of them are convicted drug dealers, all of them have sought to pervade the fabric of Guyana and the fabric of the United States with their activities,” Simels concluded.
According to Simels, the United States Government is clearly using delaying tactics in the Roger Khan case
“The government keeps calling this a complex case. We keep arguing it's not a complex case. Their theory is a straight narcotics case. They're gonna call four, five, six or eight witnesses (who are) gonna say ‘I did this and Roger Khan somehow was involved.
“That's not a complex case. A complex case is a securities case with 500 records that you have to review. We've argued that the judge ought to take away the declaration of a complex case and let us proceed (with) the trial.
“She's refused to lift that determination and it does help the government to delay the trial.”
He said that in the interim, every person from Guyana who has been convicted for drug trafficking was approached with a deal.