Sea Pirates Walk, Case Against Them Falls Apart in Court

Leonel Sedacy

Three alleged sea pirates, Leonel Sedacy, Giovanni Murillo and Everal Teck Junior, accused of shooting at coast guard personnel were freed today when they appeared in the Magistrate Court. When the men appeared in court this morning, the prosecution was unable to prove the charge of aggravated assault with a firearm because the witnesses, two coast guard officers, said they didn’t see a firearm; they had only heard what sounded like a gun. Furthermore, no gun was recovered by either the police or coastguard and none was found in the men’s possession. In April of last year, it’s alleged that the three men were in a skiff when they allegedly open fire on the coast guard who had responded to a robbery at sea. The coast guard had received a report that a fishing boat was robbed, so the guards went out to sea twenty miles south east of Belize City and saw the men they said fitted the description of the robbers .A shoot-out ensued between the fishermen and the coast guards, but no-one was injured. The three men got away but were arrested four days later.