Attorney General says Barrow responsible
While Attorney General Bradley expressed his disapproval over any indignity Mr. Sosa may have suffered, he placed blame for the situation squarely on the shoulder of Dean Barrow.
Dickie Bradley, Attorney General
“Of course not and I hope that did not happen, that nobody would want to bar the Chief Justice from going to his office or any such thing. There was an order from the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice surely would obey an order from the Supreme Court. There would be no need for any kind of heavy handedness or interference with that. I would say that it is very interesting that the very same man who has caused all this problem, who has put Mr. Sosa and the other Justices in such an unfortunate situation. Having them enter into an area of controversy anywhere else where the appointment of a judge or anyone holding high office, where the very appointment is questioned that it is not proper, it is not legal, ordinarily that matter is very quickly resolved. The person would offer to say okay.
If that is now the issue Mr. Sosa would not have known when he was invited to Belmopan to be sworn in as Chief Justice that they had not consulted the Leader of the Opposition. What is so hard in consulting the Leader of the Opposition? What is hard in giving the Leader of the Opposition a genuine opportunity, which is what the Constitution requires? You can’t send a letter to a man and tell him I want to do this and invite his views and when he turns around and says yes I want to come and express my views. If you don’t want to meet him you can write back and say let me have your views in writing or I am giving you every opportunity to consult. You can’t abort the procedure and turn around and claim that you are following the law. We must make sure that when we are appointing judges and the Chief Justice and anybody to very high positions in this country that the Constitution of Belize is followed faithfully.
So we will expect and Stewart let me just say this, clearly we are only days away from the Belize City Council Election; for me politically this is the worse thing that can happen because they will try and make a political issue of it. If we were behind it and wanted to do this thing we will wait until after the third of March. This is very bad timing politically but I can’t turn around and call some citizen in San Pedro and say you can’t go and challenge the constitutionality of the appointment of the Chief Justice; this is not a good time to do this. Why don’t you wait and so on and so fort. This is bad timing for us, but it has happened.
It is lawful and proper: an application is made to the Supreme Court, a judge has made a ruling, the Chief Justice has accepted, he has handed in his keys; he has accepted the decision of the Supreme Court. He may wish perhaps at a later date to challenge it or to make a statement. This is not about Mr. Sosa; this is about the U.D.P. government having rushed through and deliberately violated the section of the Constitution which requires proper genuine consultation with the Leader of the Opposition.”
Bradley has let it be known that his government has no problem with Mr. Sosa’s performance and considers him to be a well qualified candidate for the post of Chief Justice.
