The Bar Association has been critical of the backlog of judgment by the Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin, so much so that the Prime Minister went on record several weeks ago to inform that outside assistance would be given to the C.J. to fulfill his workload. But now, a decision has been taken not to have […]
The decision to refrain from bringing in outside legal experts to lend a hand, says the A.G. would have raised eyebrows locally. Peyrefitte says that assurances have been given that all pending judgments will be delivered by December according to a timeline given by the Chief Justice. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General “It was laid […]
A sixty five-year old granny picked up another theft conviction but was lucky to be fined instead of serving jail time. On Friday, Martha Parchue, a grandmother to three young children appeared before the Chief Magistrate Sharon Fraser and changed her not guilty plea to guilty for the theft of a seven-dollars and fifty cents boneless […]
The long-awaited consolidated appeals and cross-appeals between the government, Dunkeld International Investments Limited and Dean Boyce and the B.T.L. Employees’ Trust were heard this morning in the Caribbean Court of Justice in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The case concerns the government’s efforts to make Dunkeld and the Trust prove that its calculations of liabilities in […]
Answering for Dunkeld and the Employees’ Trust was Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay. He contended that the Government was seeking to delay its obligations under the agreement and ultimately not to pay what was owed, choosing instead to find ways around it. Here was his explanation to the court. Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for Dunkeld/B.T.L. Trust […]
While litigation involving the Ashcroft group is before the Caribbean Court of Justice, Prime Minister Barrow has weighed in on the matter of arbitral awards that were supported by the U.S. Supreme Court. According to the P.M., the Ashcroft group cannot execute on the award in the United States since Belize has no assets abroad. […]
The Senate Special Select Committee is moving closer to its conclusion, but it took a slight detour for today’s session. The two witnesses called – Labour Commissioner Ivan Williams and Assistant Registrar of the Vital Statistics Unit in the Attorney General’s Ministry, Patricia Hinkson – may not at first glance appear to be connected with […]
The Labour Department has a standing relationship with the two industries most in need of working labour – banana and citrus. But according to Commissioner Ivan Williams, there are concerns involving the employment of workers from neighboring Central American countries, particularly Guatemala. As we have reported, there are questions of whether Guatemalans seeking to become […]
The Vital Statistics Unit is at least partly computerized although a vault of the old books with manual entries of births is still maintained. The newly-appointed Assistant Registrar for the Unit, Patricia Hinkson, notes that it is still possible for anyone to walk in to register although most are done at the hospitals. But as […]
Hinkson indicated that the office does not do any vetting of its own concerning persons seeking birth certificates apart from the signature and I.D. scanning. But what can prevent someone seeking a certificate and paying off someone in the office to do so? Not much, Hinkson said, except the integrity of the system and her […]
The Caribbean Court of Justice opened its first term for the 2017-2018 judicial year with the appeal of Belize Bank Limited versus the Attorney General. The case concerns the long-standing battle for monies owed to the bank on behalf of the former Universal Health Services, now Belize Healthcare Partners Limited. The argument arises out of […]
But in the local courts, recently widowed Anke Doehm appeared before Chief Magistrate Sharon Frazer. With her late husband David, she is accused of cruelty to a child – her thirteen-year-old adopted daughter, the late Faye Lin Cannon. But David took his own life at the Princess Hotel on October fifth, the same day as […]
On Christmas Eve of 2016, media personality Alfonso Noble was accused of knocking down and killing Hattieville resident Gilbert Myers near mile four on the George Price Highway. Noble was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol, but for personal reasons refused to provide a blood specimen to police. He was back in court […]
Hattieville police made a gun bust on Sunday during which they intercepted a trio of men inside a pickup and found a nine millimetre firearm and four live rounds of ammunition. As a result, the driver and owner of the vehicle, twenty-five-year-old Tremaine Williams as well as brothers, Anthony and Andrew Lewis were all charged […]
Forty-two-year-old Swiss national Christian Reis is in trouble with the law. On Monday, he appeared before Chief Magistrate Sharon Fraser and was fined one hundred and fifty dollars for the possession of one point four grams of cannabis. The court ordered Reis to pay the fine forthwith or face one month behind bars. Today, he […]
He is back in the House of Representatives, but Cayo South area representative Julius Espat still has an axe to grind with the way he was put out on the afternoon of August twenty-sixth, 2016. His case with then-Speaker of the House Michael Peyrefitte was called before the Court of Appeal on Monday afternoon, but […]
Twenty-two-year-old Jermaine Rhaburn awaits his fate at the Belize Central Prison, pending a decision by Justice Adolph Lucas in a murder trial which concluded earlier today. The former Belize Defense Force soldier is charged with the murder of B.D.F. volunteer Clifford Cruz, who was shot and killed at the Militia Hall in Belize City in […]
Warren Lewis has been on remand for over eight years for the August eighteenth, 2009 murder of Albert Allen. After almost a decade and after a third trial for murder was not forthcoming by the judiciary, attorney Darrell Bradley sought bail today for twenty-six-year-old Lewis, a former B.D.F. volunteer, who at the age of eighteen […]
In advance of hearings next week, the Caribbean Court of Justice today rejected an application by Sunshine Holdings Limited to intervene in the final appeal between the Government of Belize, Dunkeld International Investment Limited and the Belize Telemedia Limited Employees Trust. Sunshine was previously owned by the Trust and nationalized by the government as part […]
As testified to by former director of Immigration Ruth Meighan and confirmed by others, as many as two thousand persons received nationality directly connected to the 2012 elections which did not qualify for it. So should the Minister cancel all of these documents wholesale? When Senator Eamon Courtenay put the question to him on Wednesday, […]
The Nationality Vetting Committee, according to C.E.O. and member Edmund Zuniga, continues to try to seek out legal information on how the Republic of Guatemala handles renunciation for those wishing to become Belizean. For now, it accepts the word-of-mouth procedure which Zuniga detailed in his testimony before the Senate Special Select Committee, but as previously […]
Orlando Vera, the former Belize Police Department Forensic examiner, was convicted of the offense of abetment of the crime for perverting the course of justice and has been serving a two-year prison term handed down upon him by the then Chief Magistrate, Anne Marie Smith on June first of this year. Vera was back in […]
The Senate Special Select Committee called C.E.O. in the Ministry of Immigration and Nationality, Edmund Zuniga, to testify this morning. Chief of command behind Minister Godwin Hulse, he is responsible for setting up policy and procedure for an important ministry. Before his current post, Zuniga served as Auditor General and is therefore also familiar with […]
During his testimony in May, former Minister of State for Immigration, Elvin Penner, contended that Cabinet, during his tenure, received monthly reports from the department on the number of visas given. Prime Minister Dean Barrow was less sure, saying he could not remember such reports, but Penner was adamant. According to Senate Committee member, Eamon […]
As a former Auditor General, Edmund Zuniga told the Senate Special Select Committee that it is standard practice for the Police Department to receive copies of the audit institution’s reports to conduct any investigations of their own into allegations of fraud and theft – or at least, it was in his time. Commissioner of Police […]
