EMERY CASE GOES TO NELSON SUPREME COURT JUDGE TODAY

Slocan Valley Man Wants Charges Filed Here To Keep Emery Out Of U.S.

NELSON -- A B.C. Supreme Court judge in Nelson today is to decide if
the attorney-general of Canada should be allowed to stop the private
prosecution of marijuana's prince of pot, Marc Emery.

A Slocan Valley man wants marijuana conspiracy charges he laid
against Emery to proceed to court, because under the Criminal Code,
if Emery is charged here he cannot be charged with the same crimes in the U.S.

The U.S. is trying to extradite Emery and two others on charges of
conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds, conspiracy to distribute
marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

Paddy Roberts, who charged the trio in provincial court with the same
offences last August, simultaneously applied for a B.C. Supreme Court
order prohibiting federal prosecutors from involving themselves in the charges.

The provincial court charges were adjourned until today's Supreme
Court hearing.

"There is no legal basis for their intervention. They're my charges.
They can't drop them for me," said Roberts, who himself was
extradited on marijuana charges in 2001 and spent 135 days in a U.S.
jail before the charges were stayed.

"I'll come right out and say I'm a little pissed at what happened to
me, so if it does work out that America is not able to extend the
reach of its law into our country, I'm all the happier for that."

Roberts said he believes Emery should be charged in the country where
he committed the offences.

Another attempt to charge Emery in Canada was overturned last year
when the federal government decided not to proceed with three
conspiracy charges filed against him by David McCann, a private citizen.

Emery, who ran a marijuana-seed distribution business from Vancouver,
and the two others charged with him face a minimum of 10 years in
jail if convicted in the U.S.