Mark Seawell free at last

Posted: Friday, April 7, 2017. 11:59 a.m. CST.

By BBN Staff: After 10 years of being in jail awaiting extradition to the United States, Mark Seawell joins his brother Gary Seawell in freedom.

Chief Justice of Belize, Kenneth Benjamin, granted a writ of habeas corpus dismissing the extradition proceedings against Seawell. Apart from granting his freedom in Belize, the writ means that the United States Government will not be able to prosecute him on a number of charges.

Those charges include count of conspiracy to import cocaine into the US; conspiracy to distribute and process with the intent to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to commit money laundering; money laundering; laundering money to conceal or disguise the nature, locations, source and ownership of proceeds of the sale of cocaine and marijuana; and more than 15 counts of the unlawful importation of cocaine into the US; among a myriad of other charges.

Attorneys Anthony Sylvester and Brian Neal explained that they argued that former Chief Magistrate made several procedural errors in the initial proceedings which were held in 2007.

They said that the magistrate failed to issue a warrant that complies with the Extradition Act; second, the magistrate failed to properly state the offenses against Mark Seawell that was proven in the warrant of committal; and that the magistrate failed to send the Foreign Minister the documentation of the case, including a certificate of the committal, and a report on the case.

Mark’s brother Gary was freed at the Court of Appeal level last year, also with a writ of habeas corpus. 

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