PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) - Four people, including two members of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, were extradited to the United States on Monday to face trial in the death of US war veteran, Balram 'Balo' Maharaj.

The men were ordered extradited on October 4, 2006 by Chief Magistrate Shermain McNicolls, but they filed various court motions to delay the extradition.

One of the attorneys for the men, Keith Scotland, told a local newspaper yesterday that he was unaware that his client had been extradited and that he had obtained a stay of the extradition order. The matter is to be heard in the High Court today.

Members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the local branch of Interpol whisked Corporal Ricardo deFour, 41, and Sergeant Leon Nurse, 42, to Washington on an American Airlines flight while the two civilians, Zion Clarke, 28, and Kevon Demerieux, 20, travelled on a special FBI flight on Monday afternoon.

The Court of Appeal had granted the four men a stay of their extradition until August 1 to file an appeal to the London-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

All four were expected to appear before Judge John Bates in the US Federal Court in Washington.

Maharaj, 62, was vacationing with relatives when he was abducted at a bar on April 6, 2005, and a TT$3-million (US$500,000) ransom demanded for his release.

His dismembered body was found on January 8, 2006 in a forested area in Santa Cruz, east of here.

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