COLOMBIA SEEKS EXTRADITION OF LAWYER IN U.S.

PHILADELPHIA - When he was living in Colombia, Victor Manuel
Tafur-Dominguez's job was to teach farmers to grow crops other than coca.
His father, Donald Tafur, was a high-ranking Colombian legislator and
outspoken opponent of the drug cartels who was murdered at home in Fali,
Colombia, in 1992, a presumed victim of the drug wars.

Now Tafur-Dominguez, a lawyer who came to the United States last year to
recuperate from a near-fatal plane crash and study environmental law, faces
extradition to Colombia on charges that he financed a seven-ton drug
shipment in 1998.

In a hearing scheduled for today in federal court, Justice Department
lawyers, acting on behalf of the Colombian government, will try to prove
there is probable cause that Tafur-Dominguez was involved in the drug scheme.

Tafur-Dominguez, who spent six weeks in a Philadelphia jail cell before
being released on bond two weeks ago, would be the first Colombian
extradited from the United States on the basis of a 1979 treaty his father
was instrumental in crafting.

But a growing legion of Tafur-Dominguez's supporters say the charges
against him are flimsy and easily disputed.

"This is a travesty of justice," said Ann Powers, law professor at Pace
University School of Law in White Plains, N.Y., where Tafur-Dominguez has
been enrolled since last August. "The tremendous irony is that he came to
the U.S., the land of due process, and was thrown in jail with no probable
cause."

Colombian officials claim Tafur-Dominguez used money from his father's
government pension--about $350,000 in U.S. dollars--to finance a seven-ton
shipment of cocaine bound for Spain. The shipment was intercepted in
December 1998 in Cartagena.

In response to questions about the case, the Colombia attorney general's
office in Bogota issued a statement Tuesday saying that prosecutors have
"solid proof that has been sufficiently studied that allow [them] to
connect Mr. Tafur to drug trafficking charges."

Tafur-Dominguez, 36, says he wrote checks to a private currency changer to
exchange the pension pesos to dollars and have the funds wired to a Swiss
bank, at the request of his mother, who was living in the United States by
then. Colombian investigators say those 13 checks turned up in the hands of
E.I. Caribe, a front company involved in the drug shipment.

A major discrepancy in the Colombian case is that the $350,000 in pension
money was sitting right where it was supposed to be, in a Swiss bank
account, until the funds were used two weeks ago to post bail for
Tafur-Dominguez. "The record clearly shows that in exchange for his checks,
Victor received U.S. dollars, not a stake in a cocaine shipment," according
to Tafur-Dominguez's court papers.

Cherif Bassiouni, law professor at DePaul University in Chicago and an
expert in extradition law, said it is not unusual for Colombians to use
private money changers, which offer better exchange rates than the banks.
But because the currency changers can use legitimate checks to launder drug
money, he said, "innocent people can be trapped in that situation."

At a hearing three weeks ago, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles B. Smith
reluctantly gave Justice Department lawyers a postponement until today to
prepare their case, but Smith made it clear at that time he thinks the case
against Tafur-Dominguez is not strong. "What I have before me now doesn't
show me a great deal of strength," Smith told U.S. prosecutors at the April
13 hearing.

According to U.S. Attorney Michael Levy, under the extradition treaty the
Colombian government must present the Justice Department with evidence to
support the case against Tafur-Dominguez. "We believe there's probable
cause for these charges," he said.

Tafur-Dominguez's supporters, including dozens of law professors and
students at Pace law school who have filed an amicus brief on his behalf,
say it is unthinkable that the quiet, studious, unassuming man could be a
drug trafficker.

Richard Ottinger, a former member of congress and dean emeritus of Pace
University's law school, said in a letter last month Tafur "must have been
unjustly accused" and fears he is being set up by a Colombian drug cartel.

Tafur-Dominguez's legal quagmire began March 4, when he and his mother,
Solita Dominguez, now living in New Hope, Pa., where pulled over on their
way to a Philadelphia flower show and Tafur-Dominguez was arrested by
federal drug enforcement agents, at the request of Colombia.

Tafur-Dominguez's supporters are suspicious about the timing of his arrest.
The Colombian government, they say, is hoping for a U.S. aid package of
more than $1 billion to help fight the drug wars, and the country is eager
to prove it is serious about getting tough on drug traffickers.

"The facts are all too clear that two governments are trying to get the
maximum hype out of an alleged 'drug arrest,' " Tafur-Dominguez's attorney
Joseph Tate said in court papers.

Tafur-Dominguez, who has been staying with his mother since he was released
from jail two weeks ago, said Tuesday he believes he will be cleared but
fears drug traffickers will kill him if he is forced to return to Colombia.
Justice Department attorneys have noted that 12 people involved in the case
have been killed so far.

"I have nothing really to fear from the legal side," Tafur-Dominguez said.
"But it's going to take a long time, and it's very clear my life is in
absolute danger."

Special correspondent Steven Dudley in Bogota contributed to this report.