HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC:

AN INTERNATIONAL manhunt has been launched for a 39-year-old Jamaican man freed by a Bermuda High Court of drug charges late last month.

Andrew Hall was freed of the charges after the presiding judge ruled that he had been held in prison too long without trial.

But Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Kulandra Ratneser confirmed he had appealed against the dismissal of the case and that an arrest warrant had been issued.

Ratneser said that the authorities there were seeking the assistance of their international counterparts in locating Hall, who also has American citizenship.

Hall left Bermuda by private jet last Tuesday night for Montego Bay, Jamaica, a day after walking out of the Supreme Court there, where he had denied a charge of importing US$1.8 million of heroin into Bermuda following his arrest on March 25, 2001.

Two other persons who had also been charged with Hall and pleaded guilty to the offence are now serving lengthy prison sentences.

Barris Dawkins, also known as Rudolph Everton Pusey, was jailed for 18 years last year for importing the heroin while the third accused, Teartia Smith, was imprisoned for 14 years in 2002.

Judge Archie Warner ruled that Hall could not be prosecuted because he had been held without trial for almost three years and his rights had been violated.