Tivoli Enquiry: I did not give anyone in the JLP Coke's extradition request papers - Lightbourne

Former Justice Minister and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne  has testified that she did not give anyone in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) documents relating to the pending extradition request for then fugitive Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

Lightbourne told the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry this morning that she does not know if any one in the JLP - which formed the government at the time - had copies of the extradition documents as part of an initiative to engage US-based lobby firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

She also acknowledged that if copies of the extradition documents were found at Coke's Tivoli Gardens base that should not have happened, based on the procedure for the handling of extradition requests.

"They ought not to be there," Lightbourne insisted.

She testified that she first saw the request for Coke's extradition on August 26, 2009 when an officer in the Justice Ministry brought it to her attention.

The commission has heard evidence that the authority to proceed with the extradition request was signed by Lightbourne nearly nine months later on May 18, 2010.

She testified that the file relating to Coke's extradition was handed over to then Solicitor General Douglas Leys in September 2009 as the government pondered a number of constitutional issues with the request from the United States.

As part of it's terms of reference, the commission is seeking to determine whether documents relating Coke's extradition was found at his Tivoli Gardens base.