Kidnapped US official could be subpoenaed to testify
Kaieteur News
April 26, 2007
Defence counsel in the Roger Khan drug trial in the United States of America, Robert Simels may subpoena former US State Department official at the US Embassy in Georgetown, Stephen Lesniak, to testify on Khan's behalf.
Speaking with local reporters yesterday at Le Meridien Pegasus, Simels said that the defence believes that Lesniak has a duty to Roger Khan to come forward and testify on behalf of the Guyanese businessman during his trial.
Lesniak was the subject of a kidnapping by a gang of criminals in the Buxton area in April 2003. He was subsequently released after a hefty ransom was reportedly paid.
According to Simels, Lesniak's release was due largely to the measures of Roger Khan, who he said had been interacting with officials from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department in Guyana.
“We are making our best efforts to communicate with him, but like all people in the government, whether it is here or in the United States, people in the government tend to run away from addressing their past and what they have done and what they should say,” Simels told the local media.
He added that the defence will also be pursuing other US Embassy officials as well as a DEA agent to testify on Khan's behalf.
Simels listed Deputy US Chef de Mission in the local embassy, Michael Thomas, and Drug Enforcement Authority agent, Garry Tuggle, who had met with Roger Khan at the Ocean View International Hotel on March 6, 2006, prior to the unsealing of the indictments, as being among the others whom he may subpoena.
“Michael Thomas was one of the officials from the US Embassy who was present (at the Ocean View meeting) and who has sought to make himself a ghost during the course of this investigation.
“Gary Tuggle was a DEA agent who was involved, and there were other agents of the United States who were either in the room or outside the room at the Ocean View. We believe that they can offer critical evidence of Roger Khan's efforts to fight corruption rather than to be corrupt himself.”
Simels said that from a review of the case, the name Roger Khan or any of his other nicknames was never mentioned by any of the witnesses provided by the prosecution, as to who or what was involved in drug trafficking in Guyana.
“It was not until that March meeting (at Ocean View) where Mr. Khan exposed Mr. Felix and other corrupt officials within the army and other parts of the Guyanese Government that all of this came to pass.
“Within one month the United States indicted him and unsealed an indictment which was unheard of in our procedures,” Simels explained.
“You do not unseal an indictment and make it public until the person is in custody. In this case, the United States purposely sought to unseal and to make public Roger Khan's indictment for its own reasons,” the Defence Attorney added.
However, it was pointed out that the indictment of another Guyanese businessman, who is being held in Trinidad awaiting extradition to the US, was unsealed although he is not in American custody.
But the attorney rebutted by pointing out that in Roger Khan's case, the US did not follow the correct procedures.
Simels said that the defence has already identified several other Guyanese witnesses who will testify on his client's behalf, although he disclosed that some of the testimonies may have to be compelled since some witnesses appear reluctant.
“Of course the United States has this open power down here, as they do in many countries, not to issue visas and to certainly, as we witness in Guyana, take away visa privileges from people who have been supportive of Roger Khan,”
He said that there should be no problem in getting Guyanese witnesses to testify on Roger Khan's behalf, pointing out that it is the defence's intention to ask the federal judge for permission under ‘Rule 15' of the federal rules of criminal procedure, “to direct the cooperation of the Guyana Government to allow us to take depositions in Guyana prior to the trial.”
These will include video taped depositions that will permit the defence to preserve whatever testimony is obtained, he said.
Apart from the defence, the prosecution and a stenographer, who will administer an oath, will be present during the taking of these depositions, Mr Simels added.