Last Updated on Thursday, 26 February 2026, 16:22 by Denis Chabrol

Defence lawyers Roysdale Forde, Damien Da Silva and Siand Dhurjon, In background in green shirt is their client Azruddin Mohamed.

Defence lawyer Siand Dhurjon on Thursday said efforts would be made to obtain contracts between the Guyana government and American lobbyists who were allegedly paid to link  billionaire gold dealers Azruddin Mohamed and his father, Nazar “Shell” Mohamed with the Nicolas Maduro-led Venezuelan government.

“We are in the process, actually, of engaging entities in the USA to assist us in buttressing the documents we have in our possession of and we wish for some opportunity  to bring those documents back,” he said.

Meanwhile, Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman said she would allow the defence team to read the prosecution’s depositions and make notes under supervision but they would not be allowed to take any pictures. Wary of leaks similar to Mr Nazar Mohamed’s medical report on Social Media, she said the defence lawyers would also not be allowed to have electronic devices near those court documents. “It’s very sensitive information, it contains sensitive information and so for the security reasons and given the sensitive nature of the matter, the court is not opposed to the Defence sitting as long as it wishes to have any length of time to peruse the depositions, but without cameras, without iPads, without iPhones, without smartphones, without any device, with a camera,” she said.

Mr Dhurjon stated his intent after the Principal Magistrate turned down a request for the Foreign Affairs Ministry to disclose contracts with US lobbying firms. She said the prosecution had made full disclosure and was without the contracts and communications with the US lobbyist firms on the issue of the Mohammeds.

Under cross-examination, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sharon Roopchand-Edwards could not recall the names of  the two lobbying firms but said they were mentioned during the 2026 National Budget debate. She also could not recall when the Guyana government or the Foreign Ministry had signed contracts with lobbyist firms. She said  it was “likely, but I can’t say definitively” whether predecessors had inked such contracts.

The defence team, which includes lawyers Roysdale Forde and Damien DaSilva, contend that the lobbyists were part of a plot to procure the extradition of the Mohameds. The Permanent Secretary said she was not aware that Foreign Minister Hugh Todd had met with US Marshals or US law enforcement representatives on the extradition matter before October 25, 2025 to take steps to procure the extradition request for the Mohameds.  She also disagreed that she knew of the Guyana’s government’s extraordinary efforts to procure the extradition of the Mohameds.

“It is the gravamen of the defendant’s case that this witness was well aware of the extraordinary efforts of government, including her very own minister to lobby themselves for the extradition of the defendants. The inferences of Maduro cannot be unnoticed because those are Western interests, US  interests that this government sought to associate the Mohammeds with to procure their extradition,” he said.

But Prosecutor for the US, Jamaican Attorney-at-Law, Herbert Mc Kenzie said even if she Ms Roopchand-Edwards had knowledge of those things, it would not affect the evidence. “It’s irrelevant what she knows about the political actors or the political actors.  She’s not a politician,” he said.

She conceded that it was her duty to know the government’s positions on matters that it saw as important, after saying that she was unaware of a press release by the Foreign Affairs Ministry and allegations by Mr Todd that the Mohameds were conspiring with the Venezuelan government against Guyana.

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