And still on the subject of the United Kingdom, today that country’s resident representative in Belize confirmed that a group of Gurkhas soldiers will go on trial in Belize for the 2001 killing of David Zabaneh at Raul’s Rose Garden in Ladyville. High Commissioner Philip Priestly says the November Court Martial will be more than […]
The Belize Court of Appeal has upheld the Supreme Court judgement against the Belize City Council for breaking down the wall surrounding the house of Brian Brown. According to Brown’s attorney, Dean Barrow, while the Court of Appeal did not agree that the statutory instrument under which the fence was demolished was ultra vires, it […]
The crime shocked the resort town of San Pedro last November, when five men were accused of involvement in the bludgeoning death of sixty-three year old Justo Jairo Perez during a burglary. Kevin Gonzalez Junior, Lincoln Polonio, Francis Eiley, Ernest Savery and Frank Vasquez were jointly charged with murder. But nine months after those charges […]
The case against the Chalillo project has finally reached the Privy Council in London. On Wednesday a three judge panel heard arguments on whether to grant the environmental group BACONGO an injunction against further construction on the dam until such time as the substantive case can be heard on its merits. In addition to British […]
On June tenth 2002, twenty-five year old Douglas Hyde, then a counsellor and teacher at Anglican Cathedral College, made news after a student accused him of rape. The fourteen year old told police that she and another female student went to see Hyde on school business and it was after the other young lady left […]
Brian Brown was by his own admission no angel…but when authorities broke down the wall around his yard for being higher than City Council regulations allowed, he decided to fight back. Not with an AK47, but with his lawyer. Today the Supreme Court ruled that Brown had been unconstitutionally targeted. Attorney Dean Barrow explains. Dean […]
And in news from the judicial side of law enforcement, a Toledo man has been convicted for the crime of carnal knowledge of a child. Valentin Bolon of San Antonio Village was on Monday found guilty in the Supreme Court sitting in Dangriga and sentenced by Justice Troadio Gonzales to fifteen years in prison. His […]
The case of a foiled bank robbery, which occurred early last year, is over and the three defendants have been sentenced to almost two decades behind bars each. Nineteen-year-old Ryan Valerio was this morning ordered to spend nineteen years in jail, while twenty-nine year old Ecleston Bonilla and thirty year old Clifford Caballero, will spend […]
Eight months after the Paslow building went up in flames, the man accused of arson is back in court. Twenty-three year old Ivan Ayuso was escorted to Magistrate’s Court in Belize City this afternoon to answer to twenty-two additional charges. Ayuso, out on bail for two counts of false accounting and arson was charged with […]
In other crime news, the would be chain snatcher run down by two off-duty police constables last week has pleaded guilty in Magistrate’s Court. Twenty-three year old Kevin Staine, caught in the act of ripping off a woman’s chain near the Swing Bridge, has pleaded guilty to the crime of theft. Cadle received a fine […]
Justice in Belize is not often swift, but don’t tell that to a burglar in Corozal. At one-thirty Monday morning police responded to a report of a burglary in progress at St. Paul’s Anglican School. When they arrived they saw a set of bars hanging from a window and four missing louvers. On searching the […]
It’s a case that has been meandering through the Belizean judicial system for over a year, and even after another dramatic ruling in the Court of Appeal on Friday, things are still up in the air. What I’m referring to is the case of Belize Telecommunications Limited, the Government of Belize and those restructured rates. […]
Meanwhile, this morning in the Court of Appeal, Justices Rowe, Mottley, Sosa and Carey presided over the trial of the environmentalists versus the electricity company. In the case, BACONGO, the Belize Alliance of Conservation N.G.O.s sought to have the Court of Appeal overrule the decision made by Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh, which gave Fortis/B.E.L. the […]
While some laws are, by consensus, made to be broken, others are so scrupulously observed that you’d think the entire election depended on their enforcement…which is exactly what happened today in two Belize City courtrooms. Jacqueline Woods has the story. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting A total of forty-seven objections in five electoral divisions were set for […]
She was on trial for her involvement in the murder of her cousin, Rodwell “Burger” Neal, but tonight Cherry Mae Howard is a free woman. Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh today directed a twelve-member jury to find Howard not guilty on charges of abetment to commit murder and the alternative charge of abetment to commit manslaughter. […]
It was the biggest maritime disaster in the history of Belize. Twenty people lost their lives when the motor vessel Wave Dancer capsized after it broke loose from its mooring in Big Creek at the height of Hurricane Iris. This week the families of those victims, eighteen U.S. citizens and two Belizeans, experienced at least […]
An ex-policeman was today sentenced to jail time plus the payment of compensation to the family of a man who died in his custody. Mervin Vernon was today sentenced by Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh to nine months imprisonment and the payment of five thousand dollars to the family of Frederick Reynolds Junior, who was shot […]
Viewers may recall that on October twenty-fourth fisheries officers were busy in Belize City making arrests for the possession of undersized conch. One case against a family of Sarteneja fishermen quickly resulted in a conviction, but the other–against the Northern Fishermen Co-op–could not seem to find judicial traction… until today that is, when the charges […]
It was back to business today at the Supreme Court after yesterday’s ceremonial opening. But it seems the first defendant scheduled to stand trial in 2003 had better things to do than spend the day in court. Sanjay Pilgrim was a no show when he was called to answer to a charge of dangerous harm […]
Word out of the Supreme Court is that the Chalillo Hydroelectric project now has a green light to proceed. A release from BECOL, the company that proposes to build the plant, says that Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh today ruled that the National Environmental Appraisal Committee and Department of the Environment did follow proper procedures in […]
It took the same twelve member jury that convicted Hillaire Sears of murder, about three hours to recommend a custodial sentence. Sears, who was found guilty last week of the murder of Rodwell Neal, was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison. Sears, who pleaded for mercy from the dock this morning, […]
In court news, convicted murderer Hillaire Sears will have to wait a little longer to learn his fate. That’s because his attorney, Lutchman Sooknandan, today asked for an adjournment until Thursday to present his mitigation plea. Sooknandan plans to use several people to testify as to Sears’ character prior to the murder for which he […]
In a follow up to a story we reported last week, U.D.P. Freetown candidate Dough Singh has won the latest round in his efforts to erect promotional bus stop shelters in the Belama area of Belize City. Singh told News 5 that the action in municipal court was thrown out when the prosecutor failed to […]
Belize’s death penalty may be under assault from the European Union and a collection of local and foreign human rights groups…but that has not stopped the legal system from bringing criminals to justice. Today a major trial concluded in the Supreme Court and News 5’s Marion Ali was on hand for the verdict. Marion Ali, […]
A man charged with murder has at least one more day before he knows his fate. After two full days of testimony, the prosecution, defence, and judge in the murder trial of twenty-five year old Hillaire Sears will address the jury on Wednesday before a verdict is given. Sears is charged in the killing of […]
