MANDEVILLE, Manchester -- The Opposition People's National Party (PNP) says it will be considering taking legal steps to ensure that Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller is "released" as a defendant in the recently filed action by the Government seeking a declaration on the power of Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne in dealing with extradition matters.

"We are considering all options and one option is to have her released as a defendant because we do not believe the proceedings are genuine," KD Knight, a Queen's Counsel and former national security and justice minister, told the Observer yesterday following a meeting of the PNP's National Executive Council (NEC) at the Manchester High School in Mandeville.

Knight, who spoke on the issue during the closed session of the meeting, told the Observer that the move by the Government appeared to be "just a ruse to prolong the decision-making process" on the extradition issue involving Tivoli Gardens 'don' Christopher 'Dudus' Coke."It would appear that a final decision has not been taken," said Knight. "The minister must be brave enough to take this final decision to say I am not issuing an authority to proceed if, in her view, she is correct. If not, then she should issue the authority to proceed because again, some of the questions asked are questions which ought properly to be answered either by the court of committal, which is the Resident Magistrate's Court, the Full Court in the hearing of habeas corpus proceedings in the event the fugitive fails at the first level. And if there is failure at the Full Court, then again the Appellate Court would answer these questions... This is not a matter, in my view, where a declaratory judgement ought to be sought..."Knight also ridiculed the move to have Coke (first defendant); Joseph Matalon, head of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ); and Simpson Miller answer to the court as defendants."The claimant's first defendant is Mr Chris Coke, but Mr Coke could never be heard to be opposing the position taken by the minister because that position is in his favour," Knight argued. "The other defendant is Mr Matalon in his capacity as head of the PSOJ. I don't see how he can properly be there because he has made some comments exercising his rights to freedom of speech, so has the leader of the opposition, who seems to be brought as a defendant, not as leader of the opposition but as Portia Simpson Miller.

"Now, it begs this question, can it be that any Jamaican who has opposed the actions taken by the minister can become a defendant in this matter? ...Why have they (not) chosen, for example, the editor of the Observer or the editor of the Daily Gleaner who have been consistent in their opposition?" asked Knight.