Two law enforcement officers who were found guilty of manslaughter and abetment to manslaughter were today sentenced to ten years each for the fatal shooting of Belize City resident Aaron Mariano almost two years ago. Giovanni Gutierrez, a Belize Defence Force soldier, and Police Constable Dennis Palacio were found guilty of the crimes last week […]
His name appeared in the media last March when he lost his job as head of U.B.’s Continuing Education Programme and was charged with theft for allegedly embezzling university funds. But today twenty-nine year old Mohammad Kamruzzaman has been given a clean slate as Crown Counsel Marjorie Moyston of the D.P.P.’s office told Justice Troadio […]
Two Belize City men walked free today after murder charges against them were dropped in the Supreme Court. Twenty-five year old Terence Bailey and twenty-six year old Jerry Bush were freed after Justice Troadio Gonzalez instructed a jury of four men and eight women to find both men not guilty of the charge of murder. […]
The legal drama playing out in a Florida Federal courtroom in the United States over control of the majority shares in Belize Telecommunications Limited will enter its second, and perhaps more crucial, second act next month. This afternoon, News Five’s Janelle Chanona spoke with Belize’s attorneys in Miami at the law firm of Hunton and […]
For those who thought the commission of inquiry into the Development Finance Corporation might be thwarted by the D.F.C.’s supposed confidentiality regulations, there is good news tonight. Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh delivered a judgment today which clears the way for the commission to proceed. The C.J. ruled that the Commission of Inquiry appointed by Prime […]
Late last night the murder cases brought against twenty-nine year old Mark Vega and twenty-four year old Luis Urbina ended in the Belize City Supreme Court… but the conclusion has brought no solace to the victim’s family. A jury of their peers returned a not guilty verdict for Urbina and was deadlocked in its deliberations […]
But while cruise arrivals appear to be growing, the new Carnival port is still tied up in legal litigation. The Supreme Court hearing initiated by the Belize Tourism Industry Association, scheduled for today and tomorrow, was this morning postponed indefinitely by Justice Samuel Awich. B.T.I.A. is going up against Prime Minister Said Musa, Attorney General […]
The situation is reminiscent of those classic cartoons starring the Roadrunner and his arch enemy Wiley Coyote. You’ll recall that every time Wiley thinks he’s got things under control and is about to capture Roadrunner, something goes wrong and he finds himself about to be blown up, propelled over a cliff, or slammed into the […]
It’s been almost three years since the now infamous passport scandal rocked the Immigration Department. So far only a store clerk from Odette?s, Therese Cabral, has been found guilty of any wrongdoing. But now it seems one of the passport agents is actually headed for trial at the Supreme Court. Today the preliminary inquiry into […]
The latest ruling from the U.S. district court in Miami in the B.T.L. case came through today and it is not a good one for the Government of Belize. Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages has held the G.O.B. in contempt and ordered it to pay a fine of fifty thousand U.S. dollars per day retroactive to March […]
As expected, Jeffrey Prosser and his attorneys in Miami did not react well to the Belize Supreme Court ruling yesterday that two of his directors were no longer eligible to sit on the B.T.L. board, and that in fact he was no longer eligible to be chairman. Today in Miami, Prosser’s people filed Justice Conteh’s […]
There were two major developments in the B.T.L. case today. First, Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh gave a judgment regarding the composition of the B.T.L. Board, and then Belize’s lawyers in Miami filed a motion to try and stop the judge there from finding Belize in contempt and imposing sanctions. After considerable examination of the B.T.L. […]
Attorney for E-Com, Dean Barrow, agrees that while the ball is ultimately still in the Florida court, today’s judgment by the Chief Justice offers G.O.B. some hope and says it was important for Belizean interests to be protected in Belize. Dean Barrow, Attorney for E-Com ?In so far as the question of interpreting the Articles […]
This afternoon, attorney for the Belizean Government in Miami, Barry Davidson spoke to News Five about the action his firm is taking to try and get Justice Ursula Ungaro-Benages to reconsider her ruling that Belize was in contempt of the Miami court and had been withholding vital information about the change in directors from Jeffrey […]
She was accused of forging official documents and giving false evidence under oath in connection with the 2002 immigration scandal. And today, after three weeks of testimonies, justice was meted out to forty-six year old store clerk Therese Cabral. After being convicted of eleven counts of forgery on Monday in the courtroom of Justice Adolph […]
After four hours of legal wrangling, the case of Government, joined by the Michael Ashcroft controlled E-COM Limited, versus Jeffrey Prosser?s Belize Telecom and I.C.C. over interpretation of the Articles of Association rested their submissions before Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh. In a strange pairing, Opposition Leader Dean Barrow representing E-Com and Solicitor General Elson Kaseke […]
The transcript of Thursday’s hearing in Miami’s U.S. district court is in, and while the ruling is not quite as emphatic as ICC’s lawyer Lanny Davis would have us believe, his account was basically factual. “The Government of Belize is in contempt”, said Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages, and invited submissions from both sides on what, if […]
The account comes from the lawyer for Jeffrey Prosser but until the Belize Government puts its own spin on today?s events we?ll report based on the information in hand. According to attorney Lanny Davis, reached by phone in Miami, the Government of Belize has been declared in contempt of court. He claims that U.S. district […]
Out with the old, in with the new. That’s how Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh described it as he formally introduced new rules that will govern how cases are handled in the Supreme Court. The new rules come into effect on Monday, and will replace the seventy-nine year old British procedures which were adapted for local […]
It may be the eve of a welcome four-day holiday weekend but that has not stopped the wheels of justice–at least those located in Miami–from rolling forward. And word from that venue, according to the Government of Belize, is that the U.S. district court has ruled that the G.O.B. is not in contempt of court […]
In another bit of judicial news the Privy Council in London yesterday handed down its ruling in the Appeal by former Supreme Court Justice George Meerabux. The five justices denied the appeal, saying that the Belize Advisory Council had acted properly in removing the judge for misbehaviour on the bench. The original complaints against Meerabux […]
And what about the wild card in all this: Jeffrey Prosser. He’s working a two-track solution: one, in the U.S. District Court in Miami and the other in Belize City. He has sent ICC executive Ronald Sanders to negotiate the sale with Sunrise, but his big problem is unloading the massive Intelco note he bought […]
It’s the best news that Belmopan has received in a long time: a clear and decisive ruling by Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh that a temporary injunction issued by a U.S. Federal Court in Miami placing Jeffrey Prosser back in charge of B.T.L. is neither enforceable nor effective in Belize. The Supreme Court ruling gives the […]
The final bell has not yet rung in the legal boxing match between Jeffrey Prosser and the Government of Belize…but so far Prosser is ahead on points…way ahead. Today a Federal Court in Miami ruled in favour of the U.S. Virgin Islands based tycoon and ordered G.O.B. to remove its newly appointed board members, retaining […]
The Supreme Court case of Therese Cabral continued today in courtroom number three in Belize City. The forty-nine-year-old store clerk is charged with fifteen counts of forgery and six counts of perjury in connection with the illegal sale of passports. The first witness called to the stand by prosecutor Majorie Moyston was Inspector Santiago Ciau. […]
