Charges dismissed against U.D.P. representative
It will likely be remembered as one of those surreal and perhaps comic footnotes in Belize’s political history… that is the dramatic arrest of Collet representative Patrick Faber in Belmopan. Today his legal problems were resolved, but let’s first return to the scene that unfolded that fateful day in April during a public forum organised by the University of Belize. The idea was to give the students a chance to dialogue with the Prime Minister during turbulent times. But then came ruction at the gates when union activists and politicians were denied entry to the event. In one of those clashes, Faber had his run-in with the cops.
Patrick Faber, April 28, 2005
?See the flyer here people, public forum, inviting the people of this country to come out to the public form. They have stopped the people of this country from coming in just to protect Prime Minister Said Musa.?
(Nat sound: police trying to prevent Faber from entering forum)
Patrick Faber
?What is your reasoning for not wanting me as a member of the National Assembly… I never come inna that crowd, I get in my vehicle and I drove here from Belize City.?
(Nat sound: Faber runs from officers, eventually apprehended and carried off by police)
By the end of the day, Faber would be charged with two counts of aggravated assault against a police officer. After a series of adjournments and preliminary hearings, those charges were lessened to two counts of assault of a police officer while in execution of his duties. Today Faber had his day in Belmopan Magistrate’s Court where all charges against him were dismissed. This afternoon the young U.D.P. representative told News Five that the outcome is a vindication of his actions.
Patrick Faber, Charges Dismissed
“I was only standing up for what I thought was right and I think the case today proved that the police could not in any way show that I assaulted anybody and those people who saw the tape on television could clearly see that I did not act in any kind of way to hurt anybody, and so to make that charge was just totally ridiculous from the start.”
“In the case of Superintendent Orio, I just think it was a case of he saw me as a young boy to some extent and he slapped me in fact and told me that I was being upstart. He repeated that charged today that he did say to me, he admitted it, that I was being upstart. And what my attorneys pointed out was that this was a member of the House of Representatives, this is somebody who is a man by all standards and he was having a discussion with a lot of police officers and you just intervened. In fact, the police officer that I was speaking with was Mr. Wade, who outranked Mr. Orio, so he had no right to intervene, he could not do anything. I mean, if something should be done Mr. Wade should have done it. In that light I feel good that the charges have been dropped, but over the whole time I think the police and the government have tried to harassed me, they have tried to drag me through these court charges, trying to paint me as some kind of criminal and those people who know me, especially those in my constituency know that I am far from a criminal.”
“The furthest the police could have gone to say where they got their instructions from was to Assistant Commissioner of Police Maureen Leslie, so even the Magistrate pointed it out that Maureen Leslie had no authority to stop anybody from going into a private area. The police failed to prove that it was, as they put it, a private forum. And as you know, my contention was always that it was advertised as a public forum and by so everybody, not only myself, should never had been denied entry into that forum.”
Faber was defended in court today by attorney and Leader of the Opposition, Dean Barrow, along with attorney Ellis Arnold.
