Said Musa freed of Theft charges

Soon after the change of government in February 2008, the Barrow administration vowed that it would jail former leaders of the Musa administration for alleged corruption. One of the issues on which Prime Minister Dean Barrow focused was a grant of U.S. twenty million dollars from the government of Venezuela, only ten million of which was disclosed by the past administration. The issue percolated for months in the public domain and in December 2008, the first to be charged with the theft of ten million US dollars was the former Prime Minister Said Musa, the only leader in Belize ever charged with an indictable offence. But today that charge did not stand in court. It took the Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh almost two hours to deliver his judgment quashing a ruling by Magistrate Earl Jones who committed Musa to stand trial. A relieved Musa left a packed courtroom flanked by his attorneys: Karim Musa, Anthony Sylvestre, Kevin Arthurs, Lisa Shoman and Edwin Flowers as lead attorney. Marion Ali was at court this morning when the C.J. made his ruling.

Marion Ali, Reporting
Former Prime Minister Said Musa was as jubilant today as he was back in the 90’s when he was freed of bribery charges. As he exited the Supreme Court, he told the media and supporters that today’s ruling is a tribute to the independence of the judiciary.

Said Musa, Freed of Theft Charge
“This was from the beginning political persecution. It was political persecution because they knew that I nor Mr. Fonseca stole any money, yet they charged us with stealing ten million US dollars. It’s not the first time that I’ve faced political persecution, but a charge of this nature, ten million US dollars that I stole. Imagine, without even a police investigation. There was no investigation of this matter. In fact, the chief witness of the prosecution was the Prime Minister. He was so bent on having me charged, that he volunteered a statement. But, as you heard today from the Chief Justice after he examined all the statements that were put in evidence, there was no evidence of theft. There was no evidence that I dishonestly appropriated any money.”

The man who made the ruling, Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh, started his summation at eight minutes past ten, but from the time he reached the halfway point, it was clear that the former Prime Minister would be freed of the charge of Theft.

And by the time the C.J. wrapped up at five minutes before midday, the verdict was resounding and in his words, repeated several times throughout the summation, “There was no evidence at the preliminary inquiry stage to show that the claimant stole ten million U.S dollars. I order that the committal order for him to be brought to this court be quashed.”

But while Musa is free of the charge, he did admit that he was not forthwith with Belizeans with the total amount of money that was granted by Venezuela.

Said Musa
“Yes in the course of our administration, some mistakes were made and indeed one of them came out today and the Chief Justice alluded to it. The fact that we did not inform the Belizean people at the time when this decision was taken. I accept that. I accept that there were political mistakes were made, but what I will not accept is that we did anything criminal or anything illegal. All my actions were geared towards solving problems, providing solutions, never for private gain.”

In this case it was Musa who was the claimant and the Magistrate Earl Jones who committed him to a Supreme Court trial who was the defendant. That’s because Musa’s legal team challenged Magistrate Jones’ ruling before the C.J. Chief Justice Conteh ruled on several points: including the admissibility of evidence and jurisdiction, saying that if an offence was committed abroad it is not susceptible to Belizean jurisdiction. The C.J. also found that there was no evidence of any crime to commit Musa to stand trial.

But while the C.J. ruled that Magistrate Jones erred in law, for the leadership of the P.U.P., John Briceño, there was no mistake about today’s outcome.

John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition
“This was just a ploy from the U.D.P. government trying to move away from the real problems of Belize; continuing unemployment, rising crime, inflation. The government has been unable to live up to the goods, so what they are doing is trying to distract the people and trying to come up with bogus charges against former leaders of the Peoples’ United Party.”

Marion Ali
“The people thought that you wouldn’t be here as the leader supporting your predecessor.”

John Briceño
“Well, we have been very clear from the beginning that we are going to stand up for every person that is being unfairly prosecuted by this government. Be it former leaders of this government or ordinary citizens of this country, we are going to stand by each and every one of them.”

But as Musa, flanked by his supporters marched from the Supreme Court building to his law firm office on North Front Street, the Director of Public Prosecutions was already regrouping for a possible round two.

Cheryl-Lynn Branker-Tait, Director of Public Prosecutions
“I was surprised by the reasoning fort he judgment but when one gets a judgment that one is not satisfied with, one doesn’t comment or rant or rave; one simply appeals, which is what we are going to do.”

D.P.P. Cheryl-Lynn Branker-Taitt says she will make her appeal before the Court of Appeal before the twenty-one day period is up.

Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.

The other person charged was Former Minister of Home Affairs and Housing, Ralph Fonseca, who was slapped with the same offence but the same Magistrate found that there was insufficient evidence to commit him to stand trial in the Supreme Court.