THE effort to prevent the extradition of fugitive Christopher 'Dudus' Coke to the United States was for a second time this week delayed in the Supreme Court.

The court was yesterday scheduled to hear an application by Coke's legal team for Judicial Review of the decision by Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne to commence extradition proceeding against him, following a nine-month delay, but the matter was postponed for today.

Coke's attorney Don Foote told the Observer that the delay could not be avoided.

"It was put off because of unforeseen circumstances, but I can't say much more than that," Foote said after leaving the in-chambers hearing before Chief Justice Zaila McCalla.

The application was supposed to be heard last Monday but was rescheduled for yesterday, to allow Coke's lawyer time to prepare a response to an affidavit filed last week Friday by the justice minister.

In the affidavit, Lightbourne denied that Prime Minister Bruce Golding forced her into giving the authority to commence extradition proceedings against Coke.

Lightbourne also stated why she finally gave the green light following her nine-month delay on the request that was sent last year August.

Coke, the former Tivoli Gardens strongman, who was routed from his West Kingston fiefdom during a joint police/military operation last week and has been on the run since then, is wanted in the US on drugs- and gun-running charges.

The signing of the warrant for his arrest two weeks ago sparked attacks by gunmen on security forces, plunging a section of the capital Kingston into chaos, and resulted in the imposition of a limited State of Emergency on Kingston and St Andrew.

The case before the Supreme Court does not prevent the police from executing the arrest warrant against Coke, who has managed to elude several attempts by the security forces to arrest him.