CANADIAN IN DUTCH JAIL WANTS TRIAL AT HOME

NELSON, B.C. - A Canadian citizen being held in a Dutch jail says he
deserves to be tried at home on drug charges. Patrick Roberts is facing
extradition to the United States, even though his case has been in the
Canadian court system for years.

Roberts was charged in 1999 with conspiring to smuggle B.C. marijuana to the
United States. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the RCMP worked together
on the operation.

While Roberts, 54, faces charges in both countries, his case has dragged
through Canada's court system for three years.

But a week ago, Roberts flew to Europe. During his flight home, U.S.
authorities pulled him off a plane in the Netherlands to face extradition to
the U.S.

Jaroen Henekamp, with the prosecutors office in the Netherlands, said his
only way out could be Canadian intervention.

"I think the only way one can influence the process is if the Canadian
authorities also send a request for extradition," said Henekamp.

Roberts, speaking from a prison in Harlem, the Netherlands, said the thought
of extradition terrifies him. He said he has the right to be tried at home,
where proceedings against him began.

"The process of justice is one that I have a right to prove my innocence. I
don't think there would have been any difficulty doing that at all," said
Roberts.

For Roberts to beat the extradition warrant to the U.S. Canadian authorities
must petition the Dutch to send him back to Canada for trial.

A lawyer involved in the case calls it ludicrous for the Canadian government
to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars bringing Roberts to trial,
only to allow his extradition to the U.S.

The B.C. federal prosecutors office said no decision has been made yet on
the Roberts case.