Guyana arrests opposition figure and gold magnate wanted by US

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GEORGETOWN (Reuters) -Azruddin Mohamed, the leader of Guyana’s top opposition party, and his father, the gold magnate Nazar Mohamed, both wanted by the United States on charges of fraud and corruption, were arrested on Friday, the country’s attorney general said.

The government of Guyana had received a request for extradition on Thursday, according to a statement released on Friday. The attorney general previously said both men would be extradited to face the charges once U.S. authorities made the request.

Azruddin, whose newly formed We Invest in Nationhood party won nearly a quarter of seats in Guyana’s parliament in its maiden election in September, was released on bail along with his father hours after their arrest.

“I am innocent,” Azruddin told local media gathered outside the courts upon his release. “The exportation of gold is not my business. It is my father’s business. I am a gold miner.”

Azruddin has also accused the ruling People’s Progressive Party of persecuting him due to his foray into politics.

Lawyers for the two men wrote Guyana’s minister of home affairs earlier this month expressing their intention to surrender to the authorities once presented with the necessary warrants.

The businessmen, who own the gold-exporting firm Mohamed’s Enterprise, were indicted in a Florida court in early October on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering to enrich themselves and defraud the government of Guyana.

Reuters reported in 2023 that the two were under investigation by U.S. authorities.

Outside the courthouse in Georgetown, dozens of supporters of the Mohameds gathered on Friday demanding their release and chanting: “We want Mohamed!”

A Georgetown magistrate granted the pair bail and ordered them to surrender their passports, local media reported. The case has been adjourned until November 10.

Videos posted by local media showed the younger Mohamed’s arrest as well as the men’s arrival, handcuffed together, to Georgetown’s magistrates’ court, accompanied by masked police officers.

“Leader of Opposition Azruddin Mohamed and his father (were) just arrested,” Hadiyyah Mohamed, Nazar’s daughter and Azruddin’s sister, said in a post on Facebook.

The Mohamed family denounced the manner of the arrest, as did the general secretary of the We Invest in Nationhood party, Odessa Primus, who said it was meant to embarrass the Mohameds.

President Irfaan Ali, who won reelection to a second term in the September election, said last week parliament would reopen on November 3, when We Invest in Nationhood’s first members of parliament will assume their roles.

If an extradition request is granted, the businessmen would have the right to challenge it in Guyanese courts. For Guyana and some of its neighbors, the court of last resort is the Caribbean Court of Justice.

(Reporting by Kemol King; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Iñigo Alexander; Editing by David Holmes and Edmund Klamann)