I read your editorial on the issue of the United States Government request for the extradition of Christopher Coke. I must point out, however, the flawed nature of your argument on the subject:

1. You are in no position to make a comparison with Coke's extradition request and the other 19 which you said were handled with dispatch.

a) You have given no time frame in which those requests were made and the time they were determined by the minister of justice, since none of these request was in the public domain before the accused was apprehended.

b) Your argument that those 19 cases were "handled with dispatch" while Coke's extradition request is taking weeks is mere speculation.

Coke, like every other citizen of this country, deserves due process at every stage. Having this matter leaked into public view, and then applying pressure on the Government to act within the timetable that people like you arbitrarily set, only indicate the scant regard that is shown for the citizen's rights.

The public interest might be better served if you should ask that such requests for extradition of Jamaican citizens be made public as a matter of policy, instead of leaking to the media the ones that they think would embarrass the Government.

Finally, wouldn't it be in the public's interest to know whose extradition was asked for in the last five years, and were they all granted, as requested?

I am, etc.,

JEREMY PALMER

Attorney-at-law

Mayor of Black River