Hearings on staying of B.T.L. judgment postponed one week
The legal wrangling in the ongoing battle for control of Belize Telecommunications Limited continued today in the Belize Court of Appeal. This morning, attorney Elson Kaseke, representing Solicitor General Edwin Flowers, appeared before Justices Mottley, Dennison and Sosa asking for a stay of the Chief Justice’s order to reinstate American investor Jeffrey Prosser to the B.T.L. board of directors. But this morning, both Prosser’s attorney and counsel for the telecommunications company, Lionel Welch and Rodwell Williams respectively, asked for an adjournment from the court on the basis that they weren’t given enough time to prepare their submissions. Both Welch and Williams say they received notice of today’s proceeding on Tuesday. As a result, Justice Manuel Sosa ordered that the matter be heard in one week’s time so as to give the lawyers and another interested parties time to get ready. In mid-September, Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh ordered that B.T.L.’s special share be returned to Prosser because the statutory instruments created by Utilities Minister Ralph Fonseca to take the share away were in fact unconstitutional.