A lawyer for Andrew Hall, the Jamaican who walked free in January when heroin importation charges against him were dropped, is fighting moves to have him re-arrested.

Mark Diel said he was mystified why it had taken two weeks for the Supreme Court Registry to contact him after he issued the action.

He said a lawyer would normally hear back within hours on an emergency constitutional application, but he said he waited for two weeks since filing the papers on February 6.

And yesterday, the Supreme Court Registrar contacted him asking him to refile the application to have the arrest warrant stayed.

The arrest warrant has been issued in Bermuda by Chief Justice Austin Ward, but it is understood it could be used by authorities in Jamaica as a basis to arrest Mr. Hall if he is in the Caribbean island.

Mr. Hall, 39, was released in January when Supreme Court quashed charges of importing $1.8 million of heroin.

He had been held without trial for almost three years and the court ruled he could not be prosecuted because his rights had been violated. Contacted by , Mr. Diel confirmed he had issued an emergency application to stay the arrest warrant issued by the Chief Justice.

And he said he could not understand what the basis was for the arrest warrant since all charges against Mr. Hall had been quashed.

?After the Chief Justice issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Hall, we filed constitutional proceedings together with an emergency application for an interim order to stay the effect of the arrest warrant,? said Mr. Diel.

?Only today, two weeks after we issued the action, the Supreme Court Registry has contacted me to refile the originating summons listing the emergency application for a week next Friday.

?In my experience, in civil proceedings when you have an emergency application, they are issued very quickly, within half a day.

?My expectation, particularly where the liberty of an individual is concerned, would be that it would be at least as fast, and I don?t understand why we?ve had to wait this long.

?Although we filed the application two weeks ago, I have had to wait two weeks for a response and I have yet to receive an explanation for the delay.

?We are concerned that an arrest warrant has been issued in circumstances where an indictment against my client has been quashed.

?To arrest him for what? There are no charges extant against Mr. Hall at this moment.?Supreme Court Registrar Charlene Scott did not return a call to seeking information about the legal action.

Mr. Hall would have faced a sentence of between 14 and 18 years in jail if he stood trial and was convicted. Those were the sentences handed down to his two Jamaican co-accused in the case.

Mr. Hall left Bermuda after being released last month and is thought to be in Jamaica.

When asked where Mr. Hall is, Mr. Diel said: ?I don?t know for certain.?

After the charges were quashed last month, Mr. Diel announced Mr. Hall would be suing the Bermuda Government for wrongful imprisonment.