Did Ben Juratowitch Really Misunderstand His Legal Assignment?

Prime Minister John Briceño

Did the esteemed legal mind tasked with providing Cabinet with an initial opinion on the validity of the Definitive Agreement misunderstand his assignment?  That’s what Prime Minister John Briceño told reporters this weekend. He said that King’s Counsel, Doctor Ben Juratowitch got it wrong, prompting Cabinet to seek a second opinion from Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes. But how could Juratowitch, widely regarded as a preeminent attorney, get it wrong?  Prime Minister Briceño explains.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“What has happened is that unfortunately, Ben Juratowitch Senior QC misunderstood what was asked of him.  So when our legal minds looked at it, basically they told me, Prime Minister, don’t waste your time, don’t read it, they misunderstood what was being asked of them.  So we asked Senior Counsel Mendes, Douglas Mendes, who better understands the Caribbean and Belize and then he took a deeper look into it and then he made the opinion that he believes that the minister did have the legal authority to do it.  But I think that we need to move on from this because, we took it to Cabinet and we prepared everything because that’s what we do at Cabinet.  But right there in Cabinet, within fifteen minutes, we decided that we don’t want to proceed this way.  And so I told Cabinet, I am pulling back this paper and I instructed both Minister Mahler, as the Minister of Tourism, and Minister Coye, as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, to meet with all the parties and to come up with something different, something new and something that is going to be more palatable for everybody and that can meet the legal requirements in making such a big investment.  They’re working on that and I am hoping that within the next few weeks we will be able to present something that can move this project forward.”