Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, S.C., says legal action will be taken to recover $4.5 million in court-awarded costs from Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed following their unsuccessful court challenges linked to the extradition proceedings against them.
Nandlall said the total stems from two separate cost orders handed down by the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
The latest award came after the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal filed by the Mohameds, who had sought to quash the extradition process on the grounds that the authority to proceed, issued by Minister of Home Affairs Oneidge Walrond, was tainted by bias.
That appeal was rejected in a unanimous ruling delivered by acting Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire, Justice of Appeal Rishi Persaud, and Justice of Appeal Nareshwar Harnanan.
According to Nandlall, the appellate court ordered the Mohameds to pay $1.5 million in costs to Walrond and another $1.5 million to him, bringing that award to $3 million.
He noted that this is in addition to an earlier $1.5 million in costs awarded by acting Chief Justice Navindra Singh in the High Court, where the matter was first dismissed.
“In total, you have $4.5 million in costs already awarded by the court, and not a dollar has been paid,” Nandlall said.
He disclosed that on March 11, 2026, he wrote to attorney Roysdale Forde, pointing out that the Chief Justice’s order required payment by February 27, 2026. However, he said no payment had been made up to that date, and no response was received to the letter.
Nandlall said enforcement proceedings will now follow.
“I requested payment to be made forthwith,” he said, adding that if the money was not paid, “the necessary steps will be taken to enforce the order.”
He also announced that a separate letter will be sent for payment of the additional $3 million awarded by the Court of Appeal.
Beyond the issue of costs, Nandlall said the 29-page ruling also reinforced the position that the extradition request originated from the United States, not from the Government of Guyana.
He pointed to the first paragraph of the Court of Appeal’s judgment, which states that Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed are the subject of a formal extradition request submitted by the US government in October 2025.
Nandlall said that the statement directly contradicts suggestions raised by the defence in the Magistrates’ Court that the extradition documents were fabricated locally.
He further said the court rejected the argument that Walrond’s decision to issue the authority to proceed was compromised by political bias.
According to the Attorney General, the court found that the minister’s role under the Fugitive Offenders Act is administrative and that once the statutory requirements are met, she is required to issue the authority to proceed.
Nandlall said the court also dismissed claims that his legal advice to the minister was itself biased, citing one section of the judgment in which the court said: “To say that this contention is preposterous is to be generous.”
The Mohameds had argued that public remarks made by government officials during the 2025 election campaign showed bias against them and invalidated the extradition process.
But Nandlall said the Court of Appeal found no evidence that the minister acted unlawfully or outside of the provisions of the law.
The court, he said, ultimately concluded that the appeal had “absolutely no merit.”
