Elquin Hernandez Detained for 4 Days; Attorney Says His Rights Were Violated

Elquin Hernandez

One more thing from the local courts….earlier this week, Belmopan resident Elquin Hernandez was remanded to the Central Prison in Hattieville for the murder of Jermain Sanker. Sanker was executed, shot to the face, on Cemetery Street in the Salvapan area as he sat in the driver’s seat of a rented car.  Belmopan police believe that Hernandez pulled the trigger, but did they violate his rights when they held him for four days before charging him?  Attorney Hurl Hamilton says the police released and rearrested his client while he was still in handcuffs.

Hurl Hamilton

Hurl Hamilton, Attorney

“Mister Hernandez was from last week Thursday detained at the Belmopan police station. Mister Hernandez was not charged until early Monday morning, which was the twenty-sixth. That kinda tell you it is well over ninety-six hours; well pass the forty-eight hours. Mister Hernandez, when his forty-eight hours was up, he was briefly taken outside of the police station with handcuffs and returned back immediately into the cellblock. Now that is not a true release after forty-eight hours. If you are under handcuff and walked to the front of the police station under police security, how can that be a release? So my client’s rights have been violated in accordance with the constitution. As a matter of fact, I was even prepared on Monday morning to have filed a habeas corpus application before the Supreme Court to bring Mister Hernandez before the court so that the court could determine his lawfulness or otherwise detention by the police. But I am convinced, I have been back and forth over that weekend and he has not been released. It was not a true release so my client’s rights have been violated in that regard.”

Hernandez is to return to court on January sixteenth, 2018.