Therese Cabral fined in immigration case

She was accused of forging official documents and giving false evidence under oath in connection with the 2002 immigration scandal. And today, after three weeks of testimonies, justice was meted out to forty-six year old store clerk Therese Cabral. After being convicted of eleven counts of forgery on Monday in the courtroom of Justice Adolph Lucas, Cabral was today fined one thousand dollars on each count for a total of eleven thousand dollars. In default, Cabral will go to jail for two years on each count for a total of twenty-two years. As for the other four counts of forgery, Justice Lucas instructed the jury to return a not guilty verdict because he felt there was insufficient evidence. Of note, however, is that defence attorney Senior Counsel Edwin Flowers successfully argued on the six counts of alleged perjury, saying Cabral had no case to answer. The judge agreed and she was acquitted. This is significant because if Cabral had been found guilty of even one of the perjury counts it would have meant at least ten years behind bars. However, Director of Public Prosecutions Kirk Anderson this afternoon issued a news release saying his office respectfully disagrees with Lucas’ decision to uphold the no case submission on the charges of perjury and he has appealed the ruling to the Belize Court of Appeal. That appeal is expected to be heard over the next few months, and if successful Cabral will be retried.

And in case you are wondering whatever happened to the two other men accused of wrongdoing in the immigration scandal, News Five understands Belize City businessmen, Jabor “Gabby” Affif and Hassan El-Sayed will have their day in the upcoming June session of the Supreme Court. The cases against Affif and El-Sayed include some one hundred and nineteen accusations of forging official documents.