|
Below, you'll find extensive information on leading
hotel costa rica articles and products to help you on your way
to success.
The Costa Rica Extradition
By William Freeman, Fri Dec 9th
My name is William Freeman, Jr. In April of 2000 Interpolarrested me at my home in Guadalupe, for charges thatstemmed out of Wyoming in 1991. The charges were Conspiracy toDistribute Cocaine. Costa Rican law and the Costa RicanConstitution do not have a provision for conspiracy laws;therefore, I decided to fight the Extradition.I was arraigned inCourt and appointed a Public Defender. was advised of my rightsunder he laws of Extradition and also under the Constitution ofCosta Rica.I was then transferred to San Sebastian Prison in SanJose, where I was confronted by a group of inmates atknifepoint. They wanted the clothes I had brought with me. Irefused to relinquish my clothes and suffered the consequenceswith a broken arm.The unit I was placed in was equipped with 80beds, yet there were 324 inmates in this unit, most of whichwere sleeping on the floor. I did sleep on the floor for thefirst couple of days until I was able to purchase a bed for$200. The prison does not supply you with clothing, dishes,hygiene products or bedding. This, you must have delivered toyou from the outside if you, in fact, have someone to do thisfor you. The prison does not have hot water, nor does it havewater for toilets. There were two faucets with cold runningwater which the inmates used for showers. I made arrangements tohave bedding delivered to me, along with the many other items Ineeded, including the delivery of food. Without this outsideassistance, I would never have survived the 15 months I spentthere. The prison unit was dark, filthy, over-crowded and filledwith disease, rats, and daily violence that resulted in thedeaths of other inmates.My public defender was at first veryconfident that I would win the Extradition and be set free.According to her, it was just a formality that I must go throughand we must wait the formal filing of charges by the UnitedStates Embassy. She was certain that they would not file thesecharges in 60-day time period allotted by the courts inaccordance with the Bi-lateral Extradition treaty between theUnited States and Costa Rica. Late in the afternoon of day 60,the United States Embassy did file the formal charges. I decidedthat I would continue to fight the Extradition to the UnitedStates. For those of you not familiar with Extradition law, youhave only three days to appeal the court’s decision.While I wasawaiting a decision from the court, my attorney stopped takingmy calls and would not respond to my inquiries. I knew that thecourt would be rendering a decision at any moment and myattorney’s failure to communicate with me had me quiteconcerned. It was at this time I decided to write my own appealfor a court decision I had not yet received. I feared that thecourt would decide against me and allow the United States toextradite me and that my attorney was working in conjunctionwith the United States Embassy. I was correct in thisassumption, as the Court had in fact decided in favor of theUnited States to extradite me. But because I had anticipatedthis, I had a friend of mine hand-deliver the blanket appeal Ihad prepared to the court. This allowed me time to prepareanother appeal that would answer the court’s decision. Had I notfiled my appeal prior to receiving the court’s decision, thetime allotted for appeal would have lapsed and I would have beenextradited.To my amazement, when I read the court decision, theJudge had taken my one conspiracy charge and made two chargesout it to fit a similar charge of distribution of cocaine underthe laws of Costa Rica. To be extradited from another country,both countries must have the same exact law. According to thelaws of Extradition, if the country you are residing in does nothave a similar law, then you are not extraditable. Due to thefact that does not have conspiracy laws, I would nothave been found. Therefore, the judge changed my charge fromconspiracy cocaine to distribution of cocaine, now justifying myExtradition, as the laws are now the same in both countries.Idecided it would be in my best interest to continue studying thelaw and I made arrangements to have the Costa Rican law bookspurchased for me and delivered to the prison so that I may studyfor my defense. I was doing a much better job than the attorneyI had and my appeal had been accepted. This allowed me more timeto study and submit another appeal. I am fluent in Spanish andthis was of great assistance to me in my studies of the law andpreparation of legal briefs. Through my studies, I also hadstudied the conventions that govern Extradition law and I wasbecoming very knowledgeable in law which related to Extradition,the Bi-Lateral Treaty, and the Constitution of Costa Rica.As Ihad been preparing everything in Spanish, the court assumed thatI had had legal assistance of some sort. I then learned somevery important things that directly related to my case. Thefirst one was that my rights had been violated because all thedocuments I had received to date were in Spanish. Due to thefact that I am American and my native language is English, thecourt violated my rights by not having an interpreter presentduring the court proceedings and that the documents I had beenreceiving were not translated into English. I filed an appealwith the Tribunal Appeals Court which decided in my favor andhad the Extradition proceedings suspended until an interpreterwas appointed and all the documents were translated and preparedin the English language. This bought me time to prepare my caseon appeal. I also learned that due to the fact that I waslooking at a sentence of ten years to life, it was a violationof the Costa Rican Constitution. does not allowindeterminate sentences. This now required that the UnitedStates provide the Costa Rican Government a judicial promise theI would not receive an indeterminate sentence. The problem withthis is that the judicial system in the United States will notallow a judge to make any type of promise to another country,nor can he make a promise on a case that has not yet been triedin a United
Financing The Cost Of The Asset Recovery Process – Part 1
Holding The Freeze – A Case Study
Walkers SPV Limited
Pre-Emptive Strikes To Freeze Assets
Link Analysis
Self Insurance Works For SMEs
Extension Of Reorganisations Qualifying For Tax Exemption
New Law For Regulation Of Fiduciary Service Providers
Relaxation Of Loan Limits On Second Properties
The New Transparency Requirements Law
States court of law. I had the United States in a“Catch 22” on this point. Under Costa Rican law, there is afive-year statute of limitations to arrest and convict a person.My charges stemmed from a 1991 charge so I was protected underthis law. It was at this time that I noticed that Article 16b ofthe Extradition Treaty was unconstitutional under the CostaRican Constitution which states that once a person isextradited, the United States can also charge a person withother crimes that were not included in the request forExtradition. With this information at hand, I began to preparemy defense what I believed to be a winning defense. I alsodecided that I needed a defense attorney to present myarguments. It was at this time that I hired my own attorney todo this for me. When he came to visit me at San Sebastian Prisonand read the documents I had prepared, he was confidant the Iwould be set free. My new attorney accompanied me before a panelof a three-judge appeals court tribunal. The United StatesEmbassy was also present for these proceedings. As I began topresent my arguments, it was very apparent that the Judges werenot listening to me and that they, in fact, were once againtrying to twist the laws. When I argued that the statute oflimitations had expired, they responded by saying that there isno statute of limitations in the United States. But Extraditionlaws clearly state that Extradition laws of the country ofresidence shall govern the Extradition proceedings. I could seethat I was not being listened to and, therefore, finishedpresenting the arguments I had prepared. I then returned to SanSebastian Prison to await the decision.During the days thatfollowed, I tried to contact my attorney to inquire if he hadany response from the court and to get feedback from him. Onceagain, I ran into the prior problem I had with my publicdefender; he would not answer my calls. I had a friend of minetry to call him and his calls also went unanswered. I then hadsomeone go to his office, only to find that he had moved. When afriend on mine finally located him at his new office, heinformed my friend that he had been confronted and told to dropmy case if he had any political ambitions for he future. Onceagain, I found myself without an attorney. It was at this timethat I decided to file an appeal with the Supreme Court of CostaRica. I filed the appeal stating that (1) the statute oflimitations had lapsed; (2) the United States had to provide ajudicial promise, stating that I would not receive aindeterminate sentence; and (3) that conspiracy does not existin Costa Rica; therefore, these proceedings should be dropped.The Supreme Court issued an order to the United States Embassy,The Costa Rican Courts and immigration that I was not to betouched by anyone and that I could not be removed from CostaRica.I then had another public defender appointed for me and shewas, at first, very confidant that I would be set free. But Ihad been studying the law that pertained to Article 16b of theTreaty that allowed other charges to be filed against a personthat was extradited. I had been visiting with another privateattorney who was knowledgeable in Extradition law and togetherwe prepared an argument to submit to the Sala IV, the CostaRican Supreme Court, challenging the Bi-Lateral ExtraditionTreaty between the United States and Costa Rica, stating thatArticle 16b of the Treaty was unconstitutional and that theTreaty needed to be ratified to reflect this unconstitutionalarticle. I had to submit the argument two times. The first time,the Sala IV returned my argument, stating that the argument hadmerit but I lacked the proper stamps that must be submitted witha brief and that I must follow their established format. Theyasked me to rewrite the brief and resubmit it, at which timethey would make their decision. In the meantime, all Extraditionproceedings would be suspended, not only against me, but alsoagainst any other persons that may be awaiting Extradition tothe United States.With this filed in the Sala IV and having beenaccepted, along with the Sala IV order stating that I could notbe removed from Territory, I was confident I would gofree. Legally, I had won on every point of the law and I was notextraditable. I needed only to wait for the ruling to be handeddown that would set me free in Costa Rica.On May 9, 2001 my namewas called in the San Sebastian prison. I was put into a prisonvan and brought to the airport, where two United States Marshalswere waiting for me, along with a judge I had never seen, andrepresentatives from the United States Embassy. With my SupremeCourt order in hand and under protest, I was illegally takenfrom and brought to the United States, where I waseventually sentenced to five years in a federal prison forConspiracy To Posses With Intent to Distribute and to DistributeCocaine. I completed my sentence on November 21, 2003.For thoseof you wishing to contact me, please forward your inquiries towilliam_freeman_109@hotmail.comWritten by: William WarrenFreeman Jr.
About the author:I am a 53 year old exconvicted drug felon that was Extraditedfrom by Interpol after 9 years on the run and livingin Costa Rica. I spent 15 months in a maximumsecurity prison. I now live in Greenville South Carolina (Article continued below)
| Sign In |
