News Americas, PROVIDENCIALES, TCI, Friday, Jan. 11, 2012: Even as British authorities move to have former Turks and Caicos Premier Michael Misick extradited to face allegations of corruption charges, his sister says he should be returned to the TCI.
Alith Misick Gardiner, in a letter to the TCI SUN newspaper, said her brother “is being made to suffer in one of the worst prisons in the world even though he was never charged with any crime.”
Misick, 46, is presently being held in a maximum security jail in Brazil after being arrested there on Friday December 7, 2012 on an Interpol red notice and a warrant from the Brazil Supreme Court.
Under an agreement with Brazil, the British authorities have 60 days from the date of arrest to formally request his extradition, according to the Turks and Caicos Islands’ (TCI) Attorney General’s office said in a statement on Jan. 9th.
But Misick Gardiner says her brother was arrested unlawfully and his human rights are being violated and that to date, the Brazilian Federal police has not offered their “family the very basic information; as to his detention, where he is being kept and what condition he is being held under, why are we not allowed to call him and why is he not allowed to call us.”
“It is shameful that what we know we have learned through the media,” she was quoted by the paper as saying.
Misick, an attorney-at-law, was living outside of TCI for about two years and on the basis of alleged political persecution in the Turks and Caicos Islands, he sought political asylum in Brazil where he had been living since October 2011 and had legal permission to reside and work until April 2013.
His request for political asylum was denied in November 2012 and he was in the process of appealing the decision when he was arrested by Brazilian police.
Misick’s brother, Washington Misick, who was a former chief minister is now the Minister of Finance; his nephew DonHue Gardiner is presently the minister of Immigration and his cousin Akeirra Misick is the Deputy Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
