Disputes over land are often complex and filled with emotion and a new case file laid before the Chief Justice of Belize today is no different. But as News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports, this claim has the power to force the Government of Belize to finally make its legal position clear on the indigenous rights […]
When we last left the case of the Income Tax Department versus three Michael Ashcroft controlled companies regarding non-payment of millions of dollars in business tax, negotiations to reach an out of court settlement had fallen apart. In response, the Barrow administration took out fresh summonses against Telemedia, Digicell and Belize Enterprise Systems Limited for […]
In news from the Chief Justice’s courtroom, an application by the Attorney General’s Ministry for leave to appeal the C.J.’s decision granting judicial review of the government’s proposed amendments to the Referendum Act was heard this morning. The substantive matter will be dealt with on June thirtieth but this morning on behalf of the A.G., […]
It was one of several unsolved murders of 2006: the brutal killing of twenty year old David Pook. Pook’s body was discovered in a swamp off Faber’s Road on August twenty-eighth and according to investigators, appeared to have been tortured before being fatally stabbed. Three men: Ronnel Gonzalez, Clarence Grant and Edward Henry were later […]
He is one of two brothers accused in the brutal grenade attack on Mayflower Street but today twenty-year-old Kareem Smith continued to maintain his innocence to the charge. Smith appeared before Magistrate Sharon Frazer this morning to have his bail revoked. In October, Smith was charged with two counts of Robbery and as a condition […]
The business deal took place more than thirteen years ago but for one of the most powerful media houses in the country, the case of Krem Radio versus Sagis Investments was a representation of David versus Goliath. And while the radio station was triumphant today, as News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports, this morning’s outcome might […]
In mid-April, Senior Superintendent Chester Williams filed for and received permission from Justice Samuel Awich for judicial review of his transfer to a desk job in Belmopan. But after the matter was struck out earlier this week on a technicality, today Williams and his attorney, Elson Kaseke, went back to re-submit the application. Following in-chamber […]
A man accused of rape was acquitted today after his victim refused to testify against him. When the now eighteen year old took the stand this morning she told the court that she wanted no further action in the case. Crown Counsel Tracy Sosa had no other evidence to offer so Justice Herbert Lord instructed […]
The case of the Financial Intelligence Unit versus the Belize Bank and its President, Philip Johnson, was once again adjourned, this time until the next Director of Public Prosecutions decides exactly where the matter will be tried. The case involves seventy-nine counts allegedly committed by the bank in failing to report what the F.I.U. calls […]
Following a technicality on Monday morning, the case against the Belize Bank and its president Philip Johnson on seventy-nine counts of failing to report a suspicious transaction had been adjourned until Friday. Or at least that’s what Magistrate Sharon Fraser thought. It turns out that even though Fraser had scheduled the case on her calendar […]
Prime Minster Barrow may have been a hit with the tourist crowd but tonight he has some egg on his face. After delivering a blistering lecture to former Prime Minister Said Musa in the House of Representatives yesterday, calling Musa a “fraud or a fool” and saying he “did not have time to take him […]
It’s never over til it’s over and we are really not sure when the by now notorious case of the Fort Street Tourism Village will end. The case did move forward this morning and News Five’s Marion Ali was at the Supreme Court. Marion Ali, Reporting Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh, this morning made a proposal […]
The case of Sagis Limited versus Krem Radio wound up today as lawyers for both sides presented their summations in the court of Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh. The picture painted by Sagis lead attorney Vincent Nelson, flown in from London for the occasion, was that of a simple contract in which one party—Krem Radio—reneged on […]
It’s a case about a business deal that took place almost fourteen years ago. On one side, is the nation’s largest conglomerate that says it just wants to receive what it paid for. On the other, is a much smaller entity in financial terms, but in its own right the most powerful voice in the […]
The case against the Belize Bank and its president, Philip Johnson, on seventy-nine counts of failing to report a suspicious transaction, has been adjourned until Friday. That’s because, as pointed out by attorney for the defendants, Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay, the summons served on the bank last week was erroneously worded as a summons intended […]
Two ex-police officers whose case was dismissed for want of prosecution have been recharged with the original offence of Trafficking in Persons. Allyson Muslar and Lauren Flowers were initially charged along with Hersel Garcia in February of 2007. This was after they were apprehended between miles seventy-one and seventy-two on the Northern Highway with eight […]
He was accused in the heinous killing of a young woman three years ago and following an unusual turn of events, the Supreme Court today decided that eighteen year old Robert Gillett will stand trial for the crime. On April third Gillett pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in connection to the vicious […]
It’s the legal dispute that refuses to die … and today lawyers for the Brown Sugar and Harbourview companies were in the Supreme Court seeking the enforcement of a ruling that they thought they had already won. News Five’s Janelle Chanona has the latest twist in the case known appropriately as “the wall”. Fred Lumor, […]
Ara Macao: that was the development project that proposed to build a two hundred and sixty room hotel, four hundred and sixty condos, a hundred thousand square foot casino and an eighteen-hole golf course on the northern end of the Placencia peninsula. And while years of public controversy, regulatory red tape and uncertain financing have […]
In news from the criminal side of the Supreme Court, a teenager charged with murder was instead found guilty of the lesser offence of Manslaughter. Eighteen year old Steven Manzanero stabbed Larry Quewell on the night of March twenty-sixth, 2005 in Cayo’s Macal River Park where a fair was being held. Quewell died the next […]
If you’re sick and tired of hearing about the back and forth over some walls at the Tourism Village, don’t worry, you’re not alone. But between the fight on Fort Street and the deadly violence around the country, I’d at least prefer to start with the war of words instead of bullets. As we hinted […]
Never in Belize’s history have a few feet of concrete resulted in so much judicial acrimony. But with millions at stake in the highly competitive cruise industry, the warring parties in the dispute over access to the Tourism Village are as determined as Obama and Clinton to end up on top. Today one side was […]
The walls separating the Fort Street Tourism Village from neighbouring waterfront businesses have been the subject of much legal debate, but in March the case climaxed with a decision by the Chief Justice for the obstructions to be removed within fourteen days, an order yet to be executed. The Village was the first to ask […]
One of two men charged with the decapitation murder of a Lord’s Bank woman has been acquitted of the charge. Eighteen year old John Chessman walked out of the Supreme Court a free man after Justice Adolph Lucas ruled that a caution statement given at the time of his arrest and any other statement he […]
It took the nine person jury only three hours to return a unanimous not guilty verdict in the manslaughter trial of Julio Che. The forty-eight year old Che was charged in connection with the fatal stabbing of thirty-five year old Jaime Serrano in October of 2006 in Ladyville. Witnesses testified that death followed an argument […]
