PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC:
AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN Eduardo Hillman, charged in connection with the Piarco International Airport rehabilitation project, is to be extradited to Trinidad and Tobago.
Judge Barry Garber agreed to the request by Trinidad and Tobago law authorities after a lengthy extradition hearing in a Miami court on Wednesday.
Hillman, 70, would become the first ever United States citizen to be extradited to Trinidad to face charges since the Extradition Treaty was signed between the two countries in 1996. He was arrested at the Miami Inter-national Airport last weekend.
Hillman, 70, is one of the two partners in the firm Birk Hillman, the project manager of the Piarco Airport project. He is due in Trinidad on Monday accompanied by officers from the International Police Organisation (INTERPOL).
His business partner, Ronald Birk, is still at large.
They are jointly charged with a number of prominent individuals and companies in Trinidad, including former government ministers Brian Kuei Tung, Sadiq Baksh and businessman Ish Galbaransingh of conspiring between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2001 to obtain contracts and payments totalling TT$1.6 billion (US$266 million) during the construction of the airport project.
