American Justice, Right of Appeal and the Nigerian Slave Trade
By
Human Rights Watch
1000 Brussels, Belgium.
Amnesty International
Boite Postale 1914, 1019 LUXEMBOURG
Dear Sir or Madam:
I have just read with deep trepidation and dread, a news item credited to the Attorney General of Nigeria and written by Emmanuel Onwubiko, captioned "Govt. wants U.S. to try Nigerians for financial crimes". http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article3 published by the Guardian Newspapers of Nigeria on Wednesday, December 11 2002.
This statement emanated after a meeting of an ad hoc body of the US/Nigeria Law Enforcement Commission, and listed various issues like drug trafficking, extradition, corruption, financial crimes, money laundering, police reforms, human trafficking and immigration. Very laudable I would say, but knowing Nigeria, only political opponents engage in Corruption! Don’t get me wrong. Every society has the right to make rules and set the bar for the just running of society, but this does not have to infringe on the rights and dignities of persons.
American Justice
Having been born at a time in which my worldview of what I perceived to be American civilization was greatly influenced by Hollywood movies, I must confess that the reality of what American Justice constitutes in practice in American Courts is quite different from what is portrayed in the movies. Forget the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment of the United States, The Laws and the Constitution. The practice of law is very different. American Justice is a tale best told in Hollywood. In real life RAILROADING is the operative word.
The Nigerian Attorney General gleefully disclosed that ‘to facilitate the process of extradition, a judge had been designated at the Federal High Court to handle extradition matters’. No where in the said article was any mention made of the right of these unfortunate individuals, to a fair hearing, due process and the upholding of their fundamental human rights. Maybe, the Attorney General like most of us, is assuming that the American Courts are fair. My experience is quite to the contrary and this does not involve the losing or winning of a case but my right of appeal, which has been denied me.
It is inhumane to send Nigerians into American Courts without guarantees as to the right of representation, fair hearing and due process. I will narrate my personal experience with the American Judiciary.
Right of Appeal
I had a case at the Kings County Family Court of the State of New York. [Reference P-2539/00]. The Judge after entering an Order, held on to a copy of the Order for SIXTEEN months and only released it after I had written and complained to everybody I could think of. When the Order was finally released, certain facts were falsified and the document was deliberately made defective by the omission of a Judicial Notice. When I took the case to an intermediate/ appellate court, [which American Laws claim is as of right] the Court threw out my appeal on the grounds that "the case was inappealable and the right to appeal had not been granted". [Reference: Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division: 2nd Judicial Department, Case Nos. 2001-05919; 2001-05922; 2001-11094.] They went further to state that "no appeal lies therefrom [Family Court Act § 439 [e]]. This section so cited by the Judges of the Appellate Division, actually states: The final order of a hearing examiner, after objections and the rebuttal, if any, have been reviewed by a judge, may be appealed pursuant to article eleven of this act. The Judge who initially heard this case, Mr. Stewart WeinStein had declared on July 7, 2001: "You have the right to appeal this case to the appellate division and ask an appeals court to reverse me, based on the decision I made".
Pardon my taking you through this personal experience in an American Court, but it was this same judge that withheld an Order obtained through fraud for sixteen months, and later issued a falsified one! When I then took the New York State Court of Appeals, in Albany, New York, USA. I got what I could only describe as a veritable piece of worthless ambiguity. "That the order sought to be appealed from does not finally determine the proceeding within the meaning of the Constitution." [See Court of Appeals of the State of New York, 2-13. Mo. No. 949.] Note, I appealed against TWO order(s) and the Constitution of the United States and even the Law guarantees my right of appeal!
The language of the Court of Appeals of an American Court should not surprise you as this is the norm. When I reported Judge Stewart WeinStein to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct for holding on to my document for sixteen months and falsification of said document. They asked me to take the case to the Inspector General, as the fault was that of the Clerk of the Court Clerk! Not to be outdone, I reported the case to the Office of the President of America. A reply came in the mail telling me that the case had been referred to the Justice Department who would contact me directly. Of course, I forgot to mention that I did earlier report this case to the Office of the Attorney General of the United States, who told me to take my case to the New York State Attorney General, who incidentally is also a defendant in my appeal., as officers of his court, acting on his behalf and that of the State of New York, are making a mockery of the law by denying me my right of appeal. What a merry go round. But the fact remains, my right of appeal has been denied! And as sure as tomorrow comes, this would be the fate of anyone deported from Nigeria to stand trial in America.
The Nigerian Slave Trade
Don’t get me wrong, I abhor crime just like the next person but this arrangement between Nigeria and America smells. I admit America has the right to protect her interest by telling Nigeria. If you don’t do something about financial crimes, we would tighten the screws and ruin you financially. But should this be at the expense of denying people their rights and is it the only way to reduce crime in Nigeria? The Nigerian government now has to offer her people for enslavement and in return get loans and other emoluments from the United States. With power comes responsibility. What happens if a deportee dies in American custody? What happens after a deportee has served his sure prison term, would he be let out at the prison gates to find his way home?
What chances of a fair trial does a suspect deported from Nigeria, have in an American Court. The answer, NONE. Would the deportation agreement be reciprocal?
The deportee is thrown into a judicial system that he has no experience of. He has no friends or relatives in a foreign land. After a frightful journey, he is bound to confess and sign any document thrust in front of him. Even if he has a court appointed lawyer, all these people are officers of the Court with no vested interest in seeing that their client is freed. Don’t forget the American government has already invested a lot of money in transporting these modern day slaves to America, and which American lawyer who values his career would stick out his or her neck for a black, poor and foreign client?
Would these modern day slaves be entitled to bail if the offense is bailable? Where would they live and how would they fend for themselves during this period? Who pays for their loss of income, stress of being separated from their loved ones and the psychological trauma they would surely undergo? And, the most important question, who guarantees them a fair trial, based on my personal experience with the American Judiciary. Their fate is sealed. They have already been found guilty and would not need to prove themselves innocent! A very expensive proposition I must say. I would ask the Nigerian government to confer with the State of Israel and find out why, with all the Jewish lawyers in America, Israel does not have deportation agreements with its best friend, the United States.
Finally, someone in Nigeria might raise the argument that the American prison system is very liberal and they do permit conjugal visits. Fine, but would the American State pay for the Nigerian convict’s spouse to visit him in jail? It is a known fact that the American prison system is an industry and these poor Nigerians would only be exploited for cheap labor and experimentation. This is cruel and inhumane or degrading punishment and goes against all basic tenets of human rights and human freedoms.
I ask all of you reading this piece to call or write a letter to the officers below asking them to spell out publicly the rights and privileges of the would be deportees and guarantee their right to a fair hearing, and due process as spelt out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Adopted by the UN General Assembly Resolution 217A (111) of December 10 1948.
The Attorney General of Nigeria
New Fed. Secretariat Complex
10th Floor, Federal Secretariat, Wing 1B [1001-1099]
Block One, Shehu Shagari Way, Abuja, Nigeria
Telephone (234) 09 523 5194
The Attorney General of the United States
Constitution Ave. and Tenth Street., NW,
Washington DC 20530, USA
Telephone 1 202 514 2000
Please be very polite and do not mention the word, KANGAROO.
December 2002