Ibori Remanded In UK Prison Till 2012 As Judge Postpones Trial Date
Posted: September 20, 2011 - 16:10


By SaharaReporters, New York
The London trial of former Delta state governor James Ibori has been delayed until 2012 after his defence team successfully argued they hadn't been given enough time to prepare.

Mr Ibori, facing 14 charges of fraud and money laundering, will remain in prison until the trial, now set to begin on 13 February, the court decided.

Members of the public in the gallery also got a hint of some of the legal arguments Mr Ibori intends to deploy in an attempt to have the case dismissed before the trial begins.

In legal hearings before the trial, defence team members told the court, they will argue 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.

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

Benjamin Aina QC of Mr Ibori's defence team, told Southwark crown court they 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.

"Mr Ibori has the right to be competently defended" Judge Anthony Pitts said, setting the new date.

Mr Ibori's defence team did not object to the prosecution's request to extend the time Mr 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.

Mr 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.

But Mr Ibori's Barrister, Nicholas Purnell QC, referred to in court by other members of the defence team -and the Judge- as "one of the finest legal minds of this generation", told the court he had been forced to withdraw his services from Mr Ibori because of the schedule.

"This has caused some considerable distress to the defendant," he said.

The delay to the start date allowed Mr Purnell to represent Mr Ibori as originally planned, he said.

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 Mr Ibori. His wife, mistress and lawyer, were all convicted in London last year.

Much of the complex evidence has been agreed over the course of the previous trials, the prosecution said.
"One wonders what the defence team has been doing these past months," Sasha Wass QC told the court.

Before the trial the court will convene to hear legal arguments, where Mr Ibori will apply to have the case thrown out.

Mr Aina said it was not clear to him that what Mr Ibori is accused of was considered illegal in Nigeria.

"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," Mr Aina said.

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 said.

The public gallery was full of Mr Ibori's supporters, including Chief P D Oboh, who hails from Mr Ibori's home village.

Also in court it was noticed that the court usher, the official monitoring the recording of proceedings, and the guard who brought Mr Ibori up from the cells are Nigerians living in London.

They will presumably have a ringside seat to observe the trial when it starts next year.
Mr. Ibori faces 14-count charge relating to money laundering in the UK of billions of naira stolen from the treasury of Delta state.

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/ibori-remanded-uk-prison-till-2012-judge-postpones-trial-date

The Evil that men do, live with them. Am really surprised that naija Judiciary actually discharged all the count charges against this man

Good