El Sayed appears in court but case is adjourned

He had been missing in action for many months and more than one courtroom pundit was betting that Hassan El Sayed had flown the coop permanently. Not so. With his right hand still in a bandage–presumably the result of a traffic accident sustained in Lebanon–El Sayed appeared in the Supreme Court today along with fellow defendant Gabby Affif. The presence of the two men, however, charged with numerous forgery offences in connection with the 2002 passport scandal, did not mean that justice for the pair was any closer to resolution. Justice Adolph Lucas told the court that he cannot deal with the case right now as he is awaiting a verdict from the Court of Appeal on a technical matter related to the nature of the crime of abetment. That said, Hassan was warned about not showing up at the next court date, as his bail of two hundred thousand dollars is on the line. That date, by the way, is September twenty-ninth, over three years after it was discovered that hundreds–perhaps thousands–of Belize passports had been illegally sold to foreign buyers.