Fran­cis Joseph

The High Court has di­rect­ed the Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons to pro­duce Hon­duran drug traf­fick­er, An­to­nio Amos, who has been de­tained at the Port-of-Spain State Prison.

Jus­tice Mau­reen Ra­j­nauth-Lee, pre­sid­ing in the Port-of-Spain High Court, is­sued an or­der yes­ter­day for the Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons to pro­duce Ramos on Mon­day so that the court may then and there, ex­am­ine whether his de­ten­tion was le­gal. Ramos was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Ger­ald Ramdeen. Ac­cord­ing to the facts, Ramos was con­vict­ed at the Ari­ma Mag­is­trates' Court on May 4, 2007, for pos­ses­sion of co­caine at Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, and sen­tenced to three years in prison. He ap­pealed the con­vic­tion and sen­tence when he was re­turned to the prison.

He was placed in the re­mand yard where he re­mained in­car­cer­at­ed un­til No­vem­ber 17, 2009, when he with­drew his ap­peal. He de­cid­ed to with­draw his ap­peal be­cause he had not yet re­ceived a date for his ap­peal while he was kept in prison. When he with­drew his ap­peal, Ramos said he was in­formed by a pris­ons of­fi­cer that his sen­tence would be com­plet­ed on March 4, 2010. He said he was ad­vised by his lawyer that his term of three years end­ed on No­vem­ber 4, hav­ing re­gard to the prison rules and the Sum­ma­ry Courts Act. Ramos said in ac­cor­dance with the prison rules, he is en­ti­tled to a re­mis­sion of one sixth of his sen­tence. By virtue of Sec­tion 150 (2) of the Sum­ma­ry Courts Act, the pe­ri­od of Ramos' sen­tence would have com­menced from the date of his con­vic­tion.