Belize Has No Witness Protection Program

Chester Williams

Belize does not have a witness protection program. That is what Police Commissioner Chester Williams reiterated to News Five when we spoke with him earlier today. One of the many hindrances that public prosecutors and investigators have is the fear that critical witnesses have to testify in cases, especially criminal cases. They fear they might be hurt or killed. It is what happened to Belize City resident Iran “Basco” Jones. His body was discovered in Biscayne after he had given testimony in a murder trial. Today, ComPol Williams told News Five that Belize is in dialogue with police agencies in the region to establish an MOU for the protection of witnesses.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“We don’t have an effective witness protection program. As a matter of fact, we don’t have one. We are still in dialogue with other police agencies abroad to see if we can come up with a MOU where we can send witnesses out and then those countries can send witnesses in For the time being, we have the Witness and Anonymity Act that which has been signed into law. And we try as best as we can to utilize that where, upon the prosecution of a matter, when it reaches the preliminary inquiry stage, the prosecution can ask the magistrate to blot out information that are pertinent to identifying who the witness or witnesses are in this different type of offensives. The act do list the offenses as well. And so we are using that for now, but certainly there’s a need for us to go beyond that. And we’re hoping that very soon we’ll be able to reach that point where we can say that we can send witnesses out to countries abroad and then they can send to Belize.”

Hipolito Novelo

“What about witnesses testifying virtually from an undisclosed location during a trial?”

Chester Williams

“The Witness and Anonymity Act do provides for that. So it is something I’m sure that the prosecutor, prosecutors are going to explore, when the need arises.”