Canadian national, Joshua Aziz Rahman’s extradition application to New Zealand made by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is on hold.

The decision was made by High Court Judge Justice Salesi Temo who said the chain of command in Fiji’s judicial system must be complied with.

The miscellaneous action was filed by DPP to extradite Rahman who is of a Fijian heritage to New Zealand.

Rahman, is convicted for being in possession of 39.5 kilograms of cocaine worth $39.5 million.

He was jailed for 20 years with a non-parole period of 14 years to be served.

New Zealand authorities had sought for Rahman to be extradited to face certain criminal charges relating to importing prohibited drugs.

The State applicant, Jayneeta Prasad from the ODPP said the Court of Appeal was yet to fix the leave to appeal hearing and was expected to be done on the next mention date which was December 12.

She said the expectation for leave to appeal hearing to be conducted was in March next year with a ruling to be delivered in April or May.

She said if the leave to appeal was granted by the Court of Appeal, then the process may take up to mid next year.

She suggested to the court to wait until the leave to appeal was dealt with so it could give an indication of the likelihood of success.

Rahman’s counsel Nancy Choo from R Patel Lawyers said there was no indication on the timeline from the Court of Appeal and that the miscellaneous application was hanging in a limbo.

She said the options available were to either dismiss the application or make an order since the High Court had already conducted a hearing and the submissions from both parties were filed.

Justice Temo then said the problem was that Rahman was a serving prisoner subjected to an appeal.

He said we could not allow our justice system to be jeopardised and the appeal process could not be disregarded.

Justice Temo adjourned the matter to May 12 next year for mention to check on the Appeal Court’s decision.

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