Government and Telemedia were back in Court today. Attorney for Telemedia, Eamon Courtenay, filed an application before Justice Samuel Awich, to suspend the decision by the Revenue Magistrate, Ed Usher that the Company pays up its business tax, pending an appeal before the Supreme Court. This afternoon in court, Courtenay claimed that the four point […]
Two police officers, Constable Alister Casey and Special Constable John Myvette, were today freed of the charges of Wounding in relation to the alleged beating of Kevin “Possum” Dawson. Chief Magistrate Margaret Mckenzie dismissed the charge because the case was also set for trial today and Dawson, who was an inmate at the Hattieville prison, […]
Belize Telemedia Limited confirmed that it made payment today of two point three million dollars in respect of business taxes that the Government claims is owed by Telemedia but according to the company, the taxes are covered under an Accommodation Agreement with the past administration. On June twenty-fourth, the Revenue Magistrate Ed Usher ordered that […]
Public consultations on the proposed amendments to the Belize Constitution are taking place as required, but there are already signs that Government is facing a tough time in gaining public approval to the proposed amendments. Late yesterday in the Supreme Court, former senator and businessman Barry Bowen, presented a claim against the Government in respect […]
In news from the Magistrate Court, News Five has been reliably informed that First Caribbean International Bank was on Friday charged with one hundred and thirteen counts of failing to report suspicious transactions under the Anti-Money Laundering Act. The charges were originally served on Friday but had to be amended due to errors in drafting. […]
The legal tangles involving Belize Telemedia continued in court this morning. Today’s case involved an application brought by Belize Telemedia that seeks to wind-up Belize Telecom and collect payment of a fourteen million dollar default judgment debt ordered by Honourable Justice John Muria last year. Belize Telecom is the company that evolved last year when […]
The event received much publicity at the time because of the charged political climate, but today in Magistrates’ Court a charge of obstruction was dismissed against U.D.P. activist Goldburn “Easy Glen” Adolphus. Magistrate Sharon Frazer dropped the charge because the prosecution was not ready to proceed. Last November, Adolphus was accused of obstructing police constable […]
The Belize Bank won the first round of the battle over the ten million dollars U.S. from Venezuela that government is attempting to recover. This morning the Chief Justice issued a stay in the matter and to add to the bank’s victory, Chief Justice Conteh, in delivering his twenty-six-page judgment on the matter, ordered the […]
In other legal issues before the Courts, this morning Justice John Muria heard arguments in the case of Christine Perriott versus Telemedia. Last year Perriott brought a claim against Telemedia saying that she was improperly terminated from her job at the company. Telemedia, for its part, is seeking an interim injunction to restrain Senior Counsel […]
Late this evening Narda Garcia, the former chief of the Social Security Board, scored victory in the Supreme Court in a long drawn out case that began in 2006 when she was dismissed as General Manager of Social Security on recommendations of the Senate Select Committee. Attorney Elson Kaseke, representing Garcia, filed a motion in […]
Two men walked away from the Supreme Court free men this morning when a chief witness in the case claimed amnesia and two others disclaimed they knew anything of the incident. The two, twenty-five year old Pedro Guzman Junior and thirty year old Henry Baptist Junior were charged for the murder of twenty year old […]
In other court news, today Taedron Bennett and Joseph Kee, accused of the 2006 Brannon murders, along with two other prison inmates, Mark Seawell and Nicholas Guevarra, appeared in court to face trial for drug trafficking. The men were charged with the offence in March after a search of their cell turned up two hundred […]
After weeks of battle, today the Government scored a major victory against Belize Telemedia Limited when the Revenue Court ordered the company to pay business taxes for the months of February and March. Revenue Magistrate Edd Usher made the ruling this morning ordering that the taxes amounting to just over four point six million dollars […]
Meanwhile in news from the Belize Supreme Court, Government’s efforts to secure payment of the millions of dollars in taxes from Belize Telemedia climaxed on Saturday with a ruling in Belmopan’s favor. Telemedia’s attorney Eamon Courtenay had asked Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh to uphold a London judge’s injunction on the Government which would force Belmopan […]
This morning the Court of Appeal ordered that two brothers convicted of murder should get a new trial. In October 2006 Maurice and Emory Felix were found guilty of the murder of Belize City mechanic Mitchum Heredia. Justice Adolph Lucas subsequently ordered that both Felixes should be jailed for life. In connection to injuries sustained […]
As we reported earlier this week, for two days the Court of Appeal heard arguments by the Government as to why they should be granted leave to appeal the injunction made against the passage of the Referendum bill pending the outcome of a judicial review. This morning the panel of judges refused the application but […]
Arguments between the Attorney General and Belize Bank’s lawyers over whether the case of the ten million from Venezuela should be heard by the Chief Justice or decided on by a London arbitration tribunal concluded late this evening. The C.J. has reserved his decision. In court today, Solicitor General Tanya Herwanger outlined the Government’s case, […]
Litigation involving the Belize Bank continued in the Supreme Court today before Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh. Through its attorney Nigel Pleming, the Bank filed what is being referred to as an anti-suit in response to the Government’s ongoing efforts to recover the ten million U.S. dollars sent from Venezuela. To put things in context, viewers […]
In news from the Court of Appeal, an accused killer awaiting retrial for Murder has been granted a new trial for a separate charge because of a technicality. In mid April, a jury was unable to reach consensus for verdicts against twenty-two year old Rene Morente and co-defendant Carlos Granillo. Both Morente and Granillo had […]
And while protestors were chanting his name in the streets, attorneys representing Michael Ashcroft’s Belize Bank continued to do battle with the Government of Belize over the Venezuelan millions. When we left the courtroom of Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh at six on Tuesday evening, the case had climaxed with the questioning of Governor of the […]
While Pleming was upstairs arguing that matter in the Supreme Court, Eamon Courtenay was representing the Belize Bank downstairs in the Magistrate’s Court. The Bank has been charged with seventy-nine counts of money laundering in connection to a series of deposits made by Belize Telecommunications Limited between 2004 and 2005. The Bank has pled not […]
Lois Young was also busy today as she was part of proceedings in the Court of Appeal. Young is asking the high court to grant her leave to appeal the Chief Justice’s decision to grant judicial review on the proposed amendments to the Referendum Act. Viewers will recall that the C.J. denied that same application […]
For the last three weeks there has been relative peace along the banks of the Haulover Creek after several court judgments ordered that the walls at the Fort Street Tourism Village should come down and the boardwalk should remain intact. But that all changed today when the F.S.T.V. emerged from the Court of Appeal victorious […]
The Supreme Court calendar is chock full of cases involving Belize Bank and the Belize Telemedia Limited. And this morning two different matters landed before the Chief Justice, one regarding the dispute between Market Square and the Income Tax department over back taxes…and a second case about those millions from Venezuela. The substantive issues are […]
The case of the walls at the Fort Street Tourism Village entered a new era as this morning fresh arguments began in the Court of Appeal. Lead attorney for the Village, Godfrey Smith, is appealing the March eleventh decision of Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh which found that the walls denied the constitutional right of the […]
