A court in Belmopan, the capital of Belize, has postponed judgement on the extradition of Slovak fugitive Karol Mello. The judge accepted a request by Mello’s lawyer, Godfrey Smith, to allow him to read the whole file in detail, the SITA newswire wrote.
Media outlets in Belize reported that Mello, charged with organising at least two murders, entered the court wearing handcuffs. The proceeding was also attended also by his wife Zuzana.
The next hearing will take place on Thursday, August 2.
Belizean police arrested Mello on the Caribbean island of San Pedro on July 11 in an operation coordinated with Interpol. Though the local authorities reportedly issued a permit to expel Mello from Belize on July 16, his lawyers secured a court ruling on July 17 which halted extradition pending a judicial hearing.
While Mello and his lawyer argued that Mello entered Belize legally, local media later reported that he had lied about his past and the outstanding charges against him in Slovakia.
Source: SITA
For more information about this story please see: Mello’s extradition gets complicated
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
