1
COPY.
Enclosure
2.
Hon. Colonial Secretary,
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2.3L 13
I think it is perhaps desirable that I should
at this stage place on record the position in which this matter now
stands, as I should like to have your instructions as to what if anything further is to be done in the matter.
2.
As the Crown Solicitor has stated in his
minute of the 19th. instant, Mr. Hazeland, the First Police Magis- -trate discharged Sotto on Saturday the 16th. instant on the ground that the matter was res judicata. It will perhaps be as well to explain how this question comes to arise in this case. It will be remembered that Sotto was brought up before r. Irving when Acting Magistrate in the early part of 1912 on an application for hia extradition; he was committed for extradition by the Magistrate but was released by the Full Court on an application made by him (Sotto) for an Habeas Corpus on the ground that some of the pro- -cedure adopted in the application for the extradition was out of order. Omitting immaterial circumstances, Sotto was again brought up on a new application for extradition before Hr. Hazelland this year, the irregularities in the procedure referred to in the pre- -vious paraĝraph having been rectified. Ur. Hazeland in bearing allaccred the application first of all claimed certain preliminary questions to be argued; I need not go into these points but amongst them may be mentioned the question as to whether any extradition arrange- -ments existed between the Philippines and this Colony and also whether the documents connected with the application were in order; it is sufficient to state that on all these points the lagistrate found in favour of the application for extradition. Sotto however raised the point that as he had already been discharged on an Ha- -beas Corpus in connection with the same offence, he could not be committed for extradition on a second application, and on this point the Magistrate found in his favour and accordingly dis- -charged him.
3. There can be very little doubt that the Magis- -trate has given a wrong decision in law. Although it is possible