AG Peyrefitte Lays Into Kareem Musa over MLAT

By this afternoon, Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte responded to Caribbean Shores Area Representative Kareem Musa, despite not being in receipt of the letter in reference to Minister of National Security John Saldivar.  The AG minced no words, calling the notion of invoking the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, under these circumstances, absolutely impractical.  According to Peyrefitte, Belize is not undertaking an investigation into Lev Dermen’s business affairs; therefore, it cannot simply request information pertaining to the names of the two government ministers in question.

Michael Peyrefitte

Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General

“I have not received such a letter.  It seems that the member for Caribbean Shores thought it would be of more dramatic effect if he were to release it to the media before actually sending it to the people from whom he claims he wants an answer.  What the member is doing is ridiculous and downright silly.  Kareem knows better than that.  If you look at the MLAT Treaty that was brought down in the Mutual Legal Assistance Act, if you look at page one, page one tells you in this case, Belize can only request information from the United States if an investigation has commenced in Belize or a prosecution has commenced or something to that effect and we need information or documentation from the U.S.  There is no investigation or prosecution going on here in Belize in relation to anything that’s happening in Utah, so on what basis would we ask the Americans for that information?  Just because wih fass?  No, that’s not the basis, that’s not how a treaty works.  It tells you that I must first certify that we are investigating a fraud similar to what’s happening in Utah and its effects here or something.  We’re not doing that, we didn’t even know about this before there was a trial in the U.S.  So we have no basis for asking the Americans that.”