Bou-Nahra walks free as charges withdrawn
Not exactly a role model for the administration of Belizean justice, the criminal prosecution of Ben Bou-Nahra has had more twists and turns than the Hummingbird Highway. Initiated almost two years ago with a hail of bullets, the process ostensibly ended today with what his lawyers called yet another bang. But as News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports, the last chapter may not have been written.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This morning Belize City businessman Ben Bou-Nahra walked out of the Supreme Court a free man after the Director of Public Prosecutions entered a nolle prosequi motion against his manslaughter charge.
Dickie Bradley, Attorney for Ben Bou-Nahra
“Where is the evidence? There is no evidence that is what happened in court today.”
According to attorney Dickie Bradley, the prosecution’s case against his client is weak at best.
Dickie Bradley
“Jury was empanelled yesterday, we went through the process of in fact carefully selecting a jury, the charges were read over to Mr. Bou-Nahra, he again reiterated his innocence and then this morning lo and behold they just drop this, I don’t know what to call it, it’s probably a road side bomb from Iraq. It just blew up in all our faces. We want, we wanted a trial because we have looked at the evidence and we are now clear in our minds when they piece together everything the prosecution has, that in fact there is no way they could have won the case.”
The case against Bou-Nahra stems from a shooting that occurred on September seventeenth 2005, which resulted in the death of twenty-three year old Shawn Copius. In his initial statement to investigators, Bou-Nahra reported that he had caught the deceased burglarising one of the vehicles parked in his front yard. He then claims that when he approached Copius, the trespasser menacingly approached him with a kitchen cleaver, forcing him to retaliate by firing his licensed nine millimetre pistol several times. Ten months later, Bou-Nahra was charged with manslaughter, but then the charge was upped to murder in December 2006. Eventually, a new D.P.P. opted for the lesser count of manslaughter.
Almost two years later, Bou-Nahra’s legal team contends the prosecution is depending heavily on the witness statement of one of the officers that responded to the shooting who reported that a “clear skinned person” told him he shot Copius in self defence.
Dickie Bradley
“On the basis of what, that somebody seh wah clear skin person tell you? There’s no identification you know. There is no identification to say the person who came to me, I knew him to be A, B, C and that that knowledge of that person is because I had seen him, known him, dealt him for five years or three years so I know what I’m talking about. Or that subsequently there was an identification parade and that I picked out the same person who came to me. You can’t come to court pan deh flimsy excuse that dah wah black skin person or wah brown skin person. And since when they start to convict persons on the basis of that thing, so I mean we were really confident.”
And the defence is going to need that confidence because Director of Public Prosecutions Lutchman Sooknandan confirmed to News Five this morning that the charges could be reinstated as early as next week.
According to Sooknandan, the nolle prosequi entered today was due to an administrative technicality. Apparently the crown counsel slated to prosecute the case, Cecil Ramirez, has to be recalled to the bar and for reasons outside his control, that procedure cannot take place until early next week. As for Bradley’s “lack of evidence” claims, Sooknandan says the case has yet to be tried and moreover, the prosecution has not begun to present its evidence. For emphasis, the D.P.P. reiterated, “this case is not over”.
Shawn Copius’s mother Carolyn was outside the courtroom this morning and is leaning on her own facts.
Carolyn Copius, Shawn’s Mother
“The evidence, they never shot my son just once or twice; they shot him five times. He was brutally beaten and was a meanful death. The person that commit dah crime is not only one I think; that single man that they had in there. And many days I come here, they summons me to the court but I nevah even hear what they were saying or talking. They nevah took me in or call me in or anything, so I think it’s unfair to me.”
Following Shawn’s death, Bou-Nahra paid the Copius family four thousand dollars to assist them with funeral expenses. And this morning his mother admits she has no interest in the legal proceedings, she just wants to get paid.
Carolyn Copius
“He done dead and gone understand?”
Janelle Chanona
“So if he had helped you, would you be interested in having this go to court?”
Carolyn Copius
“No.”
Janelle Chanona
“So once he had paid you extra…”
Carolyn Copius
“I never asked him to pay me extra, I asked him for a bond for my son at least to help me on. It doesn’t matter if a thousand dollars or five thousand dollars or whatever he give me, that can’t bring my son back but it could help me on. Maybe I could put a banana stall out there and live forever right, cause I noh have no son, nobody to help me anymore.”
And while the Copius family deals with death in their own way, attorneys Dickie Bradley, Kareem Musa, and senior counsel Ellis Arnold say they are ready for anything.
Dickie Bradley
“They say the wheels of justice they grind slow, but they grind exceedingly fine. Now how does this man and his family get back his reputation when they have already passed judgement on him? And it happens over and over. It happened because you don’t like somebody, it happens because they are not in your circle or whatever it is. The truth of the matter is that I am prepared to give all members of the media, the most hostile media against Mr. Bou-Nahra, go through the file and tell me if there is anything in there that a reasonable jury would convict him of committing any crime?”
Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.
