Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday fixed October 9 for ruling on a fresh bail application filed by the detained Binance Holdings Limited’s executive, Tigran Gambaryan.
Gambaryan is currently standing trial alongside Binance, a cryptocurrency company, on five counts of money laundering and currency speculation involving as much as $34.4 million.
At today’s proceedings, the trial judge, Emeka Nwite, set the date for ruling after hearing Gambaryan’s bail application.
Earlier, the prosecution, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had opposed the move.
The United States citizen has been held at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja since his arraignment in April.
Recalled that the court had in May denied the Binance executive’s bail application, citing flight risk.
The court’s decision came about two months after Gambaryan’s colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, reportedly escaped from a pre-trial custody in Abuja in March.
But while arguing in the fresh application, Gambaryan anchored his fresh bail application on health grounds.
But countering, the EFCC told the trial justice Nwite that Gambaryan rejected the medical treatment at the State House Clinic.
Counsel for the EFCC, Ekele Iheanacho, told Nwite while opposing Gambaryan’s second bail application moved by his lawyer, Mark Mordi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
Iheanacho, who drew the court’s attention to the State House Clinic’s medical report, said Gambaryan’s ill health was not as bad as it was being painted.
He said the report showed that the defendant was dissatisfied with the medical attention offered and rejected it.
The lawyer objected to the bail plea and urged the court to dismiss the fresh application.
He explained that the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, wrote to the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) management requesting Mr Gambaryan’s medical records.
The NSA he told the court received a response from the NCoS on 28 August, with the attached report of Nizamiye Hospital, among others.
According to him, the report indicated that Gambaryan had been receiving adequate medical care from the NCoS and taken to several hospitals, including the State House Clinic.
Iheanacho insisted that NCoS could take Gambaryan to any hospital in Nigeria, adding that surgeons could not force surgery on the defendant without his consent.
He said Gambaryan “cannot suddenly become sick,” as is allegedly commonplace with some suspects facing trial.
Mordi had urged the court to grant his client bail on liberal terms or, alternatively, to admit him to limited bail for six weeks on the basis of ill health.
He argued that though the EFCC denied Gambaryan had a severe health challenge that could not be adequately managed in Nigeria.
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