Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 16, 2009 News
– judge likely to follow pre-sentencing guidelines
Diarmuid White, the attorney representing self-confessed Guyanese drug trafficker, Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan is keeping an open mind ahead of the sentencing to be imposed on his client today..
Yesterday, White declined to speculate on the number of years judge Dora Irizarry would impose on his client because he said he prefers to play the waiting game.
Khan had entered a plea bargain with United States prosecutors after he pleaded guilty to several counts of cocaine trafficking as well as witness tampering.
His defence team and prosecutors had agreed on a 15-year sentence but Judge Irizarry had indicated that she was not bound by the agreement between the prosecution and the defence.
There have been calls for Khan to be given a longer sentence but according to reports the judge is likely to stick within the sentencing guidelines.
The US Probation Department is suggesting a greater sentence for Khan but prosecutors are arguing that the deal was the best that could have been reached.
White had earlier indicated to this newspaper that his client’s possible testimony against other players in the matter was not a part of the plea bargaining agreement.
He declined to comment on the recommendations of the Probation Department, claiming that the recommendations are not public information.
He did confirm that the prosecution in the case had defended the 15-year sentence agreement.
White said that all of the pre-sentencing conditions have already been satisfied.
When asked about his feelings on the Judge’s likely position with regards to the sentencing of his client, White said, “We’ll find out tomorrow.”
He also said that Roger Khan is doing fine. “I’m not going to characterise his state of mind,” White told Kaieteur News.
After fleeing Guyana in 2006, Roger Khan was arrested in Suriname where he was described by officials there as a highly dangerous and influential drug trafficker.
He was subsequently taken to the United States of America where he was charged with drug trafficking.
While in custody, he was implicated in a plot to neutralise witnesses for which his former attorney Robert Simels was convicted.
Interest in this matter is high among Guyanese in New York although many persons don’t actually know who he is.
The interests are being fuelled by reports that he had assisted the Guyana authorities in the fight against criminal elements that had the country under siege.
Opinion is also divided almost along partisan lines. In Brooklyn the Guyanese community wants him to get a stiffer sentence.
In Queens, where the vast majority of Indo-Guyanese to New York settled, the view is that Khan did Guyana well and should not be made to suffer. Some contended that he saved Guyana.
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