LONDON – A Southwark crown court in London has ordered former Governor James Ibori of Delta State to be remanded in prison till February 13, 2012 when his trial will commence in a 14-count charge relating to money laundering preferred against him.

The trial was originally fixed for November, but Ibori’s counsel, Mr. Benjamin Aina, QC, told the court that the defence could not begin the trial as planned in November because they need more time to go through the approximately 65,000 pages of evidence and  travel to Nigeria to speak to witnesses.

The defence team, therefore, asked the court for more time, saying they had not been given enough time to prepare. Ibori’s lawyers also argued that during the trial they will convince the court that he cannot be tried in the UK because a Nigerian court has already decided there is no evidence he has committed any crime in Nigeria.

The prosecution said the defence team had already had adequate time to prepare, as many of the legal representatives had also worked on the trials involving associates of Ibori, adding that much of the complex evidence has been agreed over the course of the previous trials.

“One wonders what the defence team has been doing these past months,” Sasha Wass, QC, representing the prosecution told the court.

The judge, Anthony Pitts, said, “Mr Ibori has the right to be competently defended.”

Ibori appeared in court wearing a creased grey linen jacket and shirt without a tie. He had freshly shaved. He waved to supporters, and at one point flashed a smile at  police officers who have worked to amass tens of thousand pages of evidence against him.

Before the trial, the court will convene to hear legal arguments, where Ibori will apply to have the case thrown out. Ibori’s lawyer, Aina, had said it was not clear to him that what Ibori is accused of was considered illegal in Nigeria.

Aina said. “Due to differences in practice between here and Nigeria, it has not yet been established that whatever did or did not take place in Nigeria is, in fact, criminal, or is malpractice that falls short of criminality.”

The trial judge, Pitts, said he received this statement with “some surprise.”

Prosecutors said an independent expert on Nigerian law had given evidence in previous trials that the crimes committed by Ibori’s associates were illegal in Nigeria.

“It doesn’t seem to us that they will be able to say that what Ibori did; stole, lied, cheated, would not be offences in Nigeria,” Miss Wass, representing the prosecution, said.

Ibori’s defence team did not object to the prosecution’s request to extend the time Ibori could be held in custody. Without such agreement, prisoners in custody on remand for non- violent offences can be released on bail after six months.

Ibori was extradited to the UK from Dubai in April, and prosecutors decided he would be tried alongside a co-defendant, Emmanuel Preko, who was already slated to be tried in November.

The public gallery was full of Ibori’s supporters

Ibori’s wife, mistress and lawyer, were all convicted in London last year.

-Sun

Posted by admin on Sep 21 2011. Filed under Delta, Latest Politics, Raw Politics, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry