By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

THE Office of the Attorney General yesterday refused to confirm or deny whether extradition files related to cases defended by State Minister for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez while he was in private practice are missing.

In a statement, the Office of the Attorney General said it “adheres to the long-established legal rule and principles which prohibit public comment on any legal matter pending before the courts, including relations with foreign states.”

“With respect to particular extradition requests made by the United States of America, the Office of the Attorney General wishes to state for the record, and for the assurance of the public, that these matters are receiving full attention and are either in progress before the court or awaiting a court date so they may proceed,” the release said.

The statement came nearly two weeks after Mr Gomez offered his resignation as minster of state for legal affairs to combat possible conflict concerns.

Mr Gomez confirmed that he tendered his resignation because of concerns about matters related to the Office of the Attorney General, where files of some men he once represented still cannot be found. The matter in question dates back to more than a decade, it has been reported.

The United States wants to extradite two of the men connected to the matter, Austin Knowles and Nathaniel Knowles, to face drug charges.

Mr Gomez was elected in 2012 to the constituency of Central and South Eleuthera. The men in question are now his constituents.

He said whenever matters arise in the Office of the Attorney General that are connected to his work before he became a Cabinet minister, steps are taken to distance himself from those matters.

“If I’m connected to matters that concern the AG’s office, the practice is to not to discuss them with me or to involve me on them,” he said. “I wouldn’t participate in briefings concerning matters that I would have felt to be a conflict of interest. I was concerned about the appearance of that.”