Reports from Punta Gorda say that as many as thirty women from the South will face immigration violation charges after a sweep over the weekend. Information from the area states that a team of police and Immigration officers conducted a operations at different bars. The women will be taken to court in Punta Gorda and […]
An Orange Walk man is free of the charge of theft following the conclusion of his trial in the Supreme Court late on Friday. A jury of nine deliberated for a little over an hour and found him not guilty of theft. Juan Angel Munoz appeared before Judge Adolph Lucas; he was accused of stealing […]
Sixty-five-year-old Guatemalan national, Francisco Levi Figueroa, secured bail from the Supreme Court today with the help of his attorney, Leeroy Banner. Figueroa is accused of fondling a six-year-old girl. But there was heavy objection by the crown, represented by Jacqueline Willoughby. Willoughby submitted that the court must take into consideration the seriousness of the […]
Andre Vega and Sanjay Hotchandani, co-owners of the “Mek Mi Rich” game show were back in court on Thursday. Businessman Curtis Swasey contended in 2015 that it was his original idea of using texting to conduct a lottery, and was in negotiation with Belize Telemedia Limited for development of what became the show. But it […]
The murder of twenty-one-year-old Omar Barahona Junior shocked the Cotton Tree residents and surrounding communities in the Cayo District. Last Saturday, Barahona Junior was shot and killed as he attended a farewell party in his honour. According to the family, he was getting ready to leave for the U.S. on June seventeenth – a trip […]
Three weeks ago, popular DJ and radio personality Andrew “Hard Rock” Bennett was gunned down on Central American Boulevard. Hard Rock’s murder shook the community because it broke a three-week lull in the murder count. Bennett was also well-known and highly spoken of in the music industry where he provided training for young boys from […]
After a year of investigation by Italian police, the courts of Italy have pronounced justice on several persons accused of defrauding investors of more than twenty million U.S. dollars in a faked hotel resort scheme. Chief Developer of the Puerto Azul “eight-star” hotel project, Domenico Giannini; his partner, Fabio La Rosa; and two others have […]
On Wednesday, you heard Cabinet Secretary and former Minister of Immigration and Nationality Carlos Perdomo essentially disclaim all responsibility for the decisions taken by officers in the public service junior to him, despite those decisions leading to one of the worst Immigration scandals in recent memory. According to Perdomo, he could not recall talking about […]
With an outright denial of the claims of whistleblower Alvarine Burgess two weeks ago, Police Assistant Superintendent Rochelle Chan appears to be putting the burden of proof on Burgess and the Senate Special Select Committee to investigate as if it is a court of law. Asked to consider whether it was even possible that Burgess […]
As reported on Wednesday, Assistant Superintendent of Police Rochelle Chan has flatly denied the allegations made against him. But if what Alvarine Burgess has said of him is a lie, is there any way to be sure? That was the question put to him by Trade Union Senator Elena Smith, but he contends that there […]
There was another round of senate hearings today. There was testimony from two persons, including Assistant Superintendent of Police Rochelle Chan. Two weeks ago, Chan gave a limited statement in response to the bombshell allegations made against him before the Senate Special Select Committee by Alvarine Burgess. The whistleblower exposed a ring of Ministers of […]
Chan also denied any contact with his brother-in-law, then-Minister of State for Immigration, Elvin Penner, about any Immigration scheme. As far as he is concerned, Burgess’ testimony is untrue. But the question that bedevils Burgess, Chan, the Senate panel and all who heard their testimonies two weeks ago and today is this: what reason would […]
Former Minister of Immigration and briefly National Security, Carlos Perdomo, ended his appearance last Wednesday before the Senate panel hitting back at claims he disregarded his personal standards with regard to approving certain applications for nationality. His return this week resumed with more sparring with Business Community Senator Mark Lizarraga, who referred him to Section […]
Carlos Perdomo was the first Minister of Immigration and Nationality appointed under the Barrow administration in 2008. His time pre-dates somewhat the Auditor General’s Report, but Senator Mark Lizarraga seemed to try to establish through his questioning that Perdomo’s alleged permissiveness was a factor in the recent “culture of corruption” in the Department, which the […]
Perdomo continued to fend off questioning about how it is that as minister he had little to no knowledge of the goings-on in the Department, relying on his most senior officers to assure him that things were going well, even though they clearly were not. Even today, Perdomo said the full extent of what happened […]
Senior Immigration Officer Ady Pacheco has been one of the most highly anticipated witnesses at the Senate Special Select Committee’s public hearings. Her name has been directly tied to the Won Hong Kim affair by former boss Maria Marin. It also appears multiple times in the Auditor General’s Reports in relation to various activities within […]
A Belize City Security Guard, David Reneau, employed at the Radisson Fort George Hotel, is the latest victim of a robbery allegedly perpetuated by another security guard. This afternoon, twenty-six-year-old Philip McLaren appeared before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith and was read two charges, one count of attempted robbery upon Radisson Fort George Hotel and one […]
Another alleged robber appeared in court this morning, only that the theft was significantly higher. Burrell Boom resident Santiago Padillo was arraigned for the theft of three thousand and thirty-three meters from the Belize Electricity Limited, valued at one hundred and seventy-seven thousand dollars. Allegations are that the theft occurred between February and April of […]
Last week Friday, Supreme Court Judge, Hon, Justice Herbert Lord heard a bail application for convicted prisoner, Orlando Vera, the Belize Police Department Ballistic Examiner. On June first, 2017 Vera was convicted for the offense of abetment to pervert the course of justice when he was recorded by a Belmopan businessman, Michael Modiri. In the […]
Two men, one from San Pedro and the other from Corozal, will have to stand trial at the Supreme Court for thirteen counts of possession of false documents in respect of nationality certificates. Forty-two-year-old Marcos Basto and thirty-one-year-old Mark Antonio Rosales were charged back in November 2015; and today a preliminary inquiry determined they are to […]
This afternoon in Orange Walk, twenty-five-year-old mother of three, Thais Cowo of San Pablo Village, was arraigned in the Magistrate’s Court on a single charge of harm. She is accused of beating up teacher of San Pablo Government School, Ednita Cocom, on the school’s compound on Thursday afternoon. Her oldest son came home and reported […]
A serial rapist in Belmopan, accused of sexually assaulting a woman in March 2011, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He was also serving a ten-year stretch for an armed robbery. But tonight, Alberto Ical was acquitted of those charges after successfully appealing both cases. Six years ago, the alleged victim testified during trial […]
He faces two years in prison, but senior forensic ballistic examiner Orlando Vera, convicted for abetment to pervert the course of justice, is fighting his conviction and sentence. Today, he applied for bail pending the hearing of his inferior appeal to the Supreme Court. Defense attorney Anthony Sylvestre argued that his client did not need […]
A trio of teenagers were handed suspended prison sentences for their roles in the robbery of entertainer Tanya Carter more than a week ago. Magistrate Carlon Mendoza sentenced nineteen year old Darwin Monroy to one year in prison, suspended. He has been further ordered to enroll and complete the Apprenticeship Program, attend counseling with the […]
A ballistics examiner employed with the National Forensic Science Service is serving a two-year sentence at the Belize Central Prison after being found guilty last Thursday of abetment to pervert the course of justice. It is the first time that such a charge has ended with a conviction and according to the Chief Magistrate, “Corruption […]
