Passport trial postponed one more time

It was the first in a long line of major scandals attributed to the government of Prime Minister Said Musa, but events in the Supreme Court today suggest that justice will be a long time coming in the case of the forgery and sale of Belizean passports. For the fourth time, witnesses were assembled in Belize City for the opening of the trial of Jabor “Gabby” Affif and Hassan El Sayed… and for the fourth time they were sent home. The reason for the current delay appears to be the question of whether El Sayed can be tried in absentia, as he has fled the jurisdiction, apparently to reside in Lebanon. Justice Adolph Lucas told the court that he needs to look at the case file and will give a written ruling on the matter … but not before April. The charges arise from the illegal sale of hundreds of passports to people primarily from China, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Applications for Belizean nationality were completed by unscrupulous agents, using dishonest justices of the peace to attest that the applicants had lived in Belize for five years when in fact most had never set foot in Belize. The scandal was exposed in July of 2002, but the practice may have been going on for as much as a decade.