Employee Trust challenges GOB takeover of Telemedia

The legal battle on the hasty expropriation by government on Telemedia is on. Late word to News Five this evening is that a constitutional challenge has been mounted against the government’s nationalization of Belize Telemedia Limited. On August twenty-fourth, the government rushed a Telecommunications Amendment Bill through the House of Representatives and by the afternoon of August twenty-sixth, a government-appointed Board of Directors had taken over Telemedia, which includes the prime minister’s son Anwar and his former wife, Lois Young. The B.T.L. Employees Trust, which holds twenty-two percent of shares in Telemedia seized by G.O.B., filed a constitutional challenge to the expropriation. The basis of the claim is that the expropriation was not for a public purpose and was arbitrary and discriminatory. We will have more on this story in our broadcast next Tuesday. But back at St Thomas Street, it is reported that a salary increase due on October first has not come through. There was no one to answer when we checked since Board Chairman Net Vasquez is out of the country.