Freed

THE?LONGEST?running extradition hearing in Barbados’ legal history came to a dramatic end yesterday when drug accused Christopher Hawkesworth, Sean Gaskin and John Wayne Scantlebury were released from Dodds Prisons and all charges against them dismissed.
Just after noon, the three men who have been fighting extradition to the United States for over a decade walked out of the St Philip prison after spending close to two years locked away in the maximum security section.
It is understood that the Attorney General issued an order for their release after the United States Government informed  local authorities that it was no longer interested  in prosecuting them.
When contacted, attorney-at-law Ralph Thorne, who vigorously represented Hawkesworth and Gaskin over the ten- year period, said he will be suing Government.