Hamilton drug charge couple released pending appeal

Jan 21 2010

A HAMILTON couple facing extradition to Portugal for cocaine trafficking have been released pending an appeal.

A request by the Portuguese authorities for a European extradition warrant covering John Kane and Nicola Feeney had been upheld at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.

However, the couple, who had been held in custody, were given bail on Hogmanay after an appeal was lodged at the High Court in Edinburgh.

They have to report to Hamilton Police Office on a weekly basis as a condition of their bail.

Kane and Feeney had been caught with cocaine at Lisbon airport in November, 2007.

The couple, of Almada Tower, had admitted smuggling 5½ kilos of the drug from Brazil.

They had flown in from Sao Paulo with packages of cocaine in two suitcases.

Charged with the illicit trafficking of narcotic and psychotrophic substances, each received a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence after spending a period in remand.

After being told that no appeal against their sentence would be lodged by the prosecutor they were given their passports back and returned to the UK.

Feeney and Kane have been living and working in Hamilton since their return.

But, unknown to them, the Portuguese authorities appealed the decision to release them and the suspended sentence was revoked in their absence.

Police arrived at their Hamilton home on October 13 last year to tell them that European arrest warrants had been issued.

The following day, represented by Nigel Scullion of Nicholas J. Scullion and Co, they appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

The extradition warrant was contested and Kane and Feeney were held in custody.

However, Sheriff Kenneth McIver, at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, upheld the extradition request on December 9.

Dates have yet to be set for the extradition appeal hearings.