Chief and two new justices sworn in

Another man who can trace his ancestry to India is in the news tonight. He is well known Belizean jurist George Singh, and in a ceremony this morning in Belmopan he was sworn in as the nation’s Chief Justice. Singh, who replaces the retired Sir George Brown, attended the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica and since his graduation in 1978 has held the posts of Solicitor General, D.P.P., family court judge and for the last seven years has served as a justice of the Supreme Court. Also at this morning’s ceremony, Governor General Sir Colville Young administered the oath of office to two new Supreme Court Justices. They are forty seven year old Manuel Sosa and fifty year old John Rivero. Sosa emerges from a twenty year legal career of private practice while Rivero is a career public officer who qualified as an attorney in 1991. Justices Sosa and Rivero are joined by George Meerabux and Traodio Gonzales to fill out the five member high court. Later this year two temporary justices from Australia will be added to the bench to clear out the Supreme Court’s large backlog of civil cases.