Minister Acknowledges Mistreatment in 2016 Raid

Richard “Dickie” Bradley

At the time of the January eleventh meeting between members of the Ahmad family and Police personnel in Belize City, they expressed their remaining displeasure over the rounding up of its members back in 2016 by the Special Branch of the police department. As many as twenty persons including pregnant wives, young children and grandparents were held by police for fifteen hours while their homes were ransacked and electronic items confiscated. The family was also denied access to legal representation. At that meeting, Police Commissioner Allen Whylie remained tight-lipped about the police’s reason for the raid. But Home Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington promised a personal investigation and report by the end of January, and he has communicated his findings thus far to the family, according to attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley. The gist of those findings is a confirmation that the family was wrongly treated.

Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Ahmad Family Consultant

“The Minister of Police had made certain statements; I am proud of him. He indicated that the treatment of the Ahmad family appears, in his view, to have been wrong. To round up every member of that family and treat them like they were criminals, that is not our system in this country.”

Aaron Humes

“This is in relation – just to be clear – this is in relation to the incident in 2016?”

Richard “Dickie” Bradley

“To the famous incident in 2016, yes, because they haven’t rounded up anybody in the latest incident and they are not in any way suspect or anything but the Minister has made a statement. I wish he would speak to the unlawful behavior of certain rogue cops in the society, so we could feel some kind of comfort that the reason to have a government is to protect all of us from when things go wrong. But that is an important development, and he has promised that before the month of January is out, he is going to get some information to that family in relation to that matter, and they will be speaking to the media in relation to that matter as well.”