Eamon Courtenay says he won’t be intimidated by PM’s tactics

eamon courtenay

Senior Counsels Godfrey Smith and Eamon Courtenay, both who represent the Ashcroft Group of Companies felt the wrath of Prime Minister Dean Barrow this week. On the airwaves and in his party’s mouthpiece, the prime minister called Smith and Courtenay unpatriotic. This morning the PM continued his attack against the two. The PM accused Courtenay of bad mouthing Belize at a meeting in Washington with officials of the International Monetary Fund.  Today we caught up with Courtenay in Belmopan, he says he won’t be intimidated by theatrics and is not afraid to speak out against what he feels is wrong.

Eamon Courtenay, Attorney at Law

“The IMF was the one in the Article Four consultations last year that mentioned the fact that one of the issues that it will be considering was the rule of law in Belize. And so I attended a meeting in Washington, it was a private meeting, this was not a meeting that there was any public statement or anything like that in which I discussed with the IMF issues that were pertinent to the rule of law of Belize and to inform them of concerns about the breakdown in the rule of law of Belize.  And I specifically spoke to them about things like the forced removal of Justice Boyd Carey from the Court of Appeal by this government. I spoke to them about the government having a decision given in the magistrate court when an order was made and an appeal was lodged against it, the law says that that suspends the order and the government immediately changed the law to suit itself. I spoke to the IMF about the forced refusal to give the Chief Justice an extension in order that he can finish his work and that it undermined the rule of law because it was in contravention of the constitution. And I spoke to the IMF also about the Sixth Amendment  to the Constitution which removed the security of tenure for the President of the Court of Appeal and Justice Morrison. I spoke about those issues which had to do with the rule of law. Marion, the position is very simple. As far as I am concerned, those things are wrong, they are unconstitutional and they are bad and I am going to speak about them in private, in public, in Belize and elsewhere. And Mister Barrow must understand, if he wants to defend these things, if he wants to defend these unconstitutional actions then he should do so. But he doesn’t have to do so with name-calling and scandalizing people. Put forward his arguments and I am prepared to debate him on them rationally, anywhere, anytime. What he is doing is wrong.”

Marion Ali

“Do you think your going to the IMF and the discussion coming out of there will have any bearing on how things transpire after this?”

Eamon Courtenay

“The way the thing works is that the IMF is going to present the government with the observations and comments of people and that is going to influence the way in which their report is made and it’s also going to influence the way in which they have a relationship with government. And in the case of the question of the Rule of Law, I think it is the highest principle that underpins our Constitution and it is a situation that requires urgent attention in Belize.”