Director of Public Prosecutions discusses crime on OYE
cheryl-lynn vidal
The retirement of Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh has soured relations between the Bar Association and Prime Minister Dean Barrow. The CJ will be vacating his seat at the end of September but would have preferred to remain in office until his caseload had been exhausted. This request was not accorded, much to the chagrin of the Bar. Appearing this morning on Open your Eyes, was the newly appointed Director of Public Prosecutions, Cheryl-Lynn Vidal. A number of hot button issues were raised as she sat on the couch.
When the retirement of the CJ came up, the DPP said that in her view, the constitution allows for the CJ to remain in office until his caseload is concluded.
Marleni Cuellar
“As a part of the judicial system, with such an important role, what is your position on the situation of the Chief Justice and the decisions that have been made regarding his retirement?”
Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, Director of Public Prosecutions
“Well, I can say that I really don’t understand the rationale behind it, the constitution clearly allows for the Chief Justice to remain in office until he has finished his business. So I don’t see that there is any reason for saying that he should not continue on in office to finish his business with cases he may have started before must be recommenced before other judges. That is my view, that I don’t see that there can be a rationale; but I think that the Prime Minister is not an irrational person, so I think that there must be some reason, perhaps that is not being shared with us but there must be some reason that he’s taken that decision and I will leave it at that.”
When the CJ demits office in September, he will not have concluded all cases before him; those are now being assigned to another judge. The back and forth between the PM and the Bar ended with correspondence from the PM to the Bar saying that he would provide no other response on the issue.
The PM has his own secret agenda……. DID HE PROMISE …TRANSPARENCY????????? AND the arrogance that he would provide not further response. Well….. that speaks for itself. WE EXPECTED MORE FROM HIM, we expected better than the PUP.
Earl, this is just to show you and all of us Belizeans that the same individual that we entrusted our country’s future is not only a Dictator but an ignorant and arrogant (Donkey) sorry, Jack–s. He has absolutely no respect or regards for our so-call Professionals opinion or decisions, including the rules & regulations or even the Laws of our Beloved Country. I should think that every Government Department is functioning under adequate “Standing Orders” which should be respected by our Prime Minister and all his Subordinates. His performance in my view clearly contribute to all the nonsense that is haunting our country (Personal opinion). We as concerned citizens wonder why our Law Enforcement and Judicial System is failing us but, this by itself is a typical example of the respect that is funnelling through out GOB, which ultimately translate to heinous crimes being committed in our country. How can GOB fix the mess in our country if our Prime Minister does not respect the very people he appointed or re-appointed to do their work as expected by and for the people (Democracy)?. I have heard about nepotism and favoritism within GOB and it’s quite obvious that this might be another case of such behaviour. Just look at the Police Department and again wonder why we have Rogue Cops, (No Excuse) but it’s real. All this bulls-it is part of the very problem that they themselves is caught up in and cannot fix it. The bottom line is, we are the ones that are suffering and it is obvious that these people either don’t know what the hell to do, don’t give a damn about us, or both.