The High Court of Antigua and Barbuda has stayed the murder prosecution of Methoni Vernon, citing due process violations, unlawful rendition, and breaches of immigration laws.
Justice Tunde A. Bakre ruled on February 10, 2025, that Vernon was illegally removed from Dominica to Antigua in 2016 without a formal extradition request, violating legal and immigration procedures. The Court deemed his prosecution an abuse of process.
Vernon, a Jamaican citizen, was detained in Dominica and told he would be deported to Jamaica but was instead forcibly transported to Antigua and arrested. The ruling referenced Bennett v Horseferry Road Magistrates’ Court (1994), affirming that proceedings must be stayed when a defendant is illegally brought into jurisdiction.
Defense counsel Andrew O’Kola condemned the authorities’ actions, emphasizing that proper legal channels exist to prevent such abuses. He stressed that immigration laws ensure fairness and transparency, which were disregarded in Vernon’s case.
This ruling sets a precedent against improper deportations and disguised extraditions, reinforcing judicial oversight against state overreach. With the case stayed, Vernon has been discharged, and the defense is calling for stricter adherence to legal procedures in future cases.
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The entire proceedings was a bundle of mess and whilst it failed to bring about some measure of relief and justice to the victims family, it certainly sets in motion a precident that would now be carefully watched and followed. I am still horrified and shocked that experienced police and prosecutors could bungle and mess up an otherwise straight forward case in this manner. There ought to be serious consequences for such a turmoil, confusion and dilemma.
No one. I repeat No one is ever held accountable in Antigua if you work of the government. This type of inefficiency and do as you like behaviour is common place. We really need constitutional reform so that laws can be put in place to hold Ministers and Permanent Secretaries responsible for those they supervise.
Time will tell
Lard wan YARDIE again??? Are u stain aryou country name at home and abroad.
Life is so unfair! Look at how an innocent man, Mannie James, was shot in the back and killed for just running AWAY from police…and this Jamaican man, who admitted (then later retracted) to being an accomplice to a murder is getting away scot free. Are police officers not taught anything about the law? Shouldn’t they know when they’re given an unlawful order? Do they have any legal resources they can call on to verified if a given order is unlawful? Can the government hire someone like Mr.Pompey per diem for such a task? Will anyone be held accountable for the this debacle?
Does this man now have legal grounds to sue the Antiguan government?
More and more I’m beginning to understand why some people says “Antigua is not a real place.”
This Government keep using the size of the island as an excuse for everything, but the mistakes that are made in the many judicial and immigration procedures are colossal mistakes.
Detainees are constantly escaping their grasp, police mistakes in crucial investigations that allow for the release of murderers, constant mistakes in missing persons discoveries, botching the Alpha Nero fiasco, woefully bringing in 1000 immigrants from Africa that were supposed to be heading to Antigua Guatemala, efing up the Air Peace deal with that sorry 70/30 colossal mistake, and the list is endless.
For such a small island, this bloody government cannot get control of anything, nothing all.
every damn thing is out of whack. tell me one thing that this Government could be proud of in office? They are steady trying to push the “Debt to GDP” narrative, which many non-gullible Antiguans know is bogus at best, because every minute they are leveeing taxes on the masses.
Everything is just not working smoothly under this Government at all. it’s like the way they do their road work with all the potholes, fix the big holes, and by the time they finish those massive holes, the other tiny ones are just as big, so around and around we go like idiots chasing our tales like fools.
Please wake up people, this Government is all big talk and no umph.
The only thing they are God at is talk down people, that’s it. Thats why every little thing the UPP does is a bigger news to them, because they are nothing big mouth attention grabbers.