United States v. PB

The first stage of the International Extradition proceeding was to challenge the probable cause basis asserted by the requesting country. The defense asserted that the petition contained only conclusory narrative 're-statements' of what the prosecutor in the requesting country believed his evidence would establish at trial. No documentary evidence was attached or submitted by the USA on behalf of the requesting country.

The defense asserted that to be sufficient, the case law required the international extradition petition to contain at least some 'evidence' and that an unsworn narration, by the prosecutor of the requesting country (which appeared to contain numerous mis-statements of the actual court record), was itself insufficient to support the certification of the extraditability of the client to the US Department of State.

The magistrate disagreed and issued the certificate of extraditability. The decision is being appealed via a Habeus Corpus petition.