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A decision on whether Allistair Chapman should be granted bail while he awaits extradition to the United States could come before the end of the month, according to his lawyers.
Lawyers for the 33-year-old have been going back and forth with federal Crown attorneys in a Calgary courtroom over the past two days as to whether or not Chapman should be released from custody while the extradition process plays out.
Chapman was among 10 people arrested by the FBI last year following an investigation into an international drug trafficking organization allegedly run by Canadian Olympian Ryan Wedding.
Wedding is accused of leading the network that allegedly transported hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico to the U.S. and Canada.
Defence lawyer Noel O’Brien is asking Chapman be released on a $500,000 surety guaranteed by his parents, a curfew and be required to reside with his parents. He said his client has nowhere else to go and hasn’t been outside Canada for 10 years.
Anne-Renee Touchette, a lawyer for the Canadian Department of Justice, says Chapman has been a “loyal soldier” to the organization and considers him a flight risk.
Touchette cited how easy it could be for Chapman to reach out to former associates via social media and doubts his parents would be able to keep a close enough eye on him.
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“There are people who have been put under a prohibition order not to communicate with anybody while they’re in prison and they somehow figure out how to do it,” said Mount Royal University Criminal Justice professor Doug King. “So that’s an extraordinarily hard bar to meet.”
Touchette also claimed Chapman has been seen with “people linked to drugs” over the past several years, and cited his previous charges in drug-related investigations — of which he was never convicted.
O’Brien repeatedly said Chapman has no criminal record and called those accusations “a distraction” and “a smear.”
U.S. prosecutors allege Chapman helped arrange the killing of a government informant by providing the man’s photo to a co-accused and paying for it to be posted online so the witness could be located before testifying. The informant was later shot dead at a restaurant in Colombia.
A number of other accused in the case have already been released on bail, including a 31-year-old Quebec man.
However, that decision is in French. Chapman’s lawyers have requested a recess in the proceedings to fully translate the decision and determine whether itis relevant to this case.
The lawyers have two weeks to provide any additional submissions or to tell the judge to proceed.
One defence lawyer told Global News it’s possible the decision could be heard before Feb. 27, which is Chapman’s next scheduled court date.
But King says the extradition saga is likely far from over.
“It’s a three- step process and it can be delayed at any of those three steps… it could also be appealed at any of those steps.”
“It oftentimes will take a year, year and a half, unless they’re put into kind of an expedited manner.”
— With files from The Canadian Press
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