Lawyer insists 'Dudus' did not squeal

 

STEPHEN H Rosen, United States the attorney representing Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, yesterday accused the Observer of publishing a "false and baseless" report that his client had co-operated with US authorities.

"There is no co-operation between Mr Coke and the US government on any level for any issue," Rosen told the Observer. "The report by the Observer is absolutely false and baseless."

Rosen was responding to yesterday's report that the US government was set to deliver to Jamaican authorities extradition requests for five Jamaicans.

A US government official had told the Observer that the extradition requests are related to the Coke case and that the US had got critical information on certain persons in Jamaica from Coke.

However, yesterday, Rosen, who before had said that Coke had not offered any information to US authorities, slammed the Observer, saying that the newspaper should "verify its source and protect its readers from misinformation supplied by anonymous sources prior to publication".

Coke, who was wanted by the US for drug and gun trafficking, waived his right to an extradition hearing last year June and has subsequently pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges in a New York court.

The former Tivoli Gardens don, who is to be sentenced on December 8, has written to Judge Robert P Patterson asking for leniency.