COLA Fears Another Nanes Schnitzer Debacle

Geovanni Brackett

COLA’s fear, according to President Geovanni Brackett, is that in the wake of the Nanes Schnitzer debacle and the recent murder of Anne Swaney, Belize will only be getting another black eye if the Muzikant matter is not handled properly.

Geovanni Brackett, President, COLA

“Why we are concerned about it is that right now the international spotlight is on Belize.  We’ve had the situation with the David Nanes Schnitzer whereby the U.S. government came here, well representatives came here and assisted in arresting an individual, a fugitive and this individual is long gone.  We’ve now heard on the news last night that the only suspect in the Anne Swaney murder was also, not fled, but let go by the immigration.  And I believe that the more that we allow these kinds of activity and like the Bradley Paumen situation, just to appear to the international community that we are not serious about tackling corruption and justice.  It makes it very difficult when our leaders go abroad begging for assistance from the U.S. Government.  You know, the very little that they are asking you to do, you’re not even complying.  Now our banking situation, all of this ties in together.  If you’re going to be asking for favors you have to be able to show your partners and allies that you are cooperating at some sort of level and so we believe that at COLA we wanted to put pressure on government and the authorities to take the right steps to actually find out if this guy is wanted by Interpol and do the right thing to secure a safe deportation back to his country where he is wanted and justice there can actually be applied.  And that’s where we are today and so we know that he has been arraigned today and I heard that they were requests being made that the arraignment be done during lunch hours to avoid the media attention, you know.”

Martin Muzikant made headlines in 2015 when attorney Marcel Cardona was accused of charging the Czechoslovakian an exorbitant fee to secure bail on his behalf after committing the previously mentioned offence.  It is alleged that Cardona informed his client that the twenty-eight thousand dollars that was being requested would be used to bribe a magistrate.  Viewers would recall that Cardona then found himself in hot water with the General Legal Council of the Bar Association following that allegation and was facing a year suspension from practicing law.