BARBADOS APPEALS COURT CONTINUES TO DELAY EXTRADITION OF ALEX TASKER TO FACE MONEY LAUNDERING CHARGES IN THE UNITED STATES

 

Another money launderer cheats justice in Barbados

The Court of Appeal Court in Barbados, almost a year after Alex Tasker, charged in the Donville Inniss money laundering and Foreign Corrupt Practises Act (FCPA) case in the United States, took up a lower court decision requiring his extradition to face the music in America, sits on the case without handing down a ruling. Given that the requirements for extradition are purely procedural, and not on the merits of the case, there is no proper reason for the delay. there is something rotten in Barbados, and it wears judicial robes.

Seasoned court observers, noting the general level of corruption in the Bajan court system, offer two probable reasons for the failure of the Court to reach a decision timely:

(1) Bribes have been paid to judicial officers, or court support staff, or executive officers, to slow-walk the process, which has already seen a number of delays, attributed to various reasons. A look at the media stories dealing with the appeal details those delays.

(2) Senior members of Barbados' Power Elite, who are government officials and affluent businessmen acting in concert, have bluntly ordered the case to linger, for years, whilst Donville Inniss serves his two-year sentence, and is ultimately deported, as his Permanent Residency will surely be revoked, based upon his felony conviction.  All the while, Tasker enjoys the fruits of his crimes, with impunity.

Given Barbados' sordid history in dragging out extraditions of its citizens to the point where requesting countries sometimes just give up, we are not expecting to see justice served in the Tasker case. Don't expect to see him in the dock in a US courtroom anytime soon.