A bus conductor, who has been travelling to and from Belize City for years, was injured in July 2016 when a patron got personal with him after he was removed from the bus because he could not pay his fare. The conductor, Samir Martinez, was hit on the head and robbed of his money bag […]
A female coast guard was placed on interdiction in January of 2016 when she attacked and choked another female officer over an old beef that had been festering between them. After spending days in lock down at the Belize Central Prison awaiting her fate, she was sent home with two court fines. Last year, Maribel […]
Senator for the Churches, Ashley Rocke, has been in hot water in some quarters for not paying attention to his duties during the Senate Special Select Committee. A few weeks ago, journalist Micah Goodin captured a picture of Rocke apparently browsing social media while in a public hearing. It prompted a stinging reaction from Chairman […]
Elvin Penner testified without major incident last Wednesday in Belmopan at the public hearing of the Senate Special Select Committee. But it appears authorities were ready for anything, as the anti-riot barrier was put up in front of the National Assembly and Police stood ready inside and outside the House. Were the Opposition People’s United […]
He was caught by police with a bag of weed while riding a bicycle without a bell contrary to traffic and later Kyle Latchman managed to escape. He was soon recaptured and police have slapped the eighteen-year-old with charges of drug trafficking, escape from lawful custody, caused a bicycle to proceed up a one-way street […]
Fifty-four-year-old John Deshaies was granted bail this morning, but as soon as he met bail, he was rearrested and tonight remains in police custody. The Canadian national was charged a week ago for the theft of fifty-seven thousand dollars of electronic equipment from the Placencia casino in the south. But Deshaies is also the suspect […]
The couple, a retired officer of the U.S. Marine Corps and his Canadian girlfriend, was found dead in a cane field off the Patchakan/Chan Chen Road after being reported missing six days earlier. The badly decomposed bodies of DeVoursney and Matus were found by a cane farmer who showed up for work on the land […]
According to DeShaies, he has been fully cooperative with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation who have been dispatched to Belize to probe into the murders. He says that he never really knew Drew Devoursney, aside from having seen the American national when visiting his girlfriend at her house on Serenity Sands Road in […]
Since being picked up as a person of interest by Corozal police, DeShaies is being bounced around from one jurisdiction to another on a seemingly endless string of perp walks. We asked whether he believes that his individual rights are being interfered with as a result of the ongoing detention. Isani Cayetano “Do you […]
On Wednesday of this week, a court in the U.S. made a ruling that appears to uphold a lower court’s jurisdiction in the GDG Acquisitions LLC versus Government of Belize case. GDG, subsidiary of Glenn D. Godfrey’s group of companies, is suing the government for twenty-two million U.S. dollars in respect to enforcement of a […]
We continue our coverage of the Senate Special Select Committee’s public hearings. On Wednesday, former Minister of State for Immigration and Nationality, Elvin Penner, visited and sat for more than five hours of testimony. Penner started off on a bad foot by ruling out speaking in depth about the Won Hong Kim scandal that cost […]
Who accompanied Elvin Penner to Taiwan and China to meet with Won Hong Kim? And what were they discussing? These are some of the questions that were put to the former Minister of State on Wednesday, though he did his best not to try to answer because of his claims of self-incrimination and double legal […]
But Penner started to clam up again when Senator Courtenay tried to make the connection between the ex-Minister of State’s ‘business vacation’ in Mainland China and Kim’s data showing up in Belize seeking passport and nationality. He would only say that the Mainland China meeting happened after becoming Minister of State – but avoided any […]
Witnesses from the Immigration Department who have testified at the public hearings have spoken of ‘sponsors’ for Asian visas. People would ask these persons to write on their behalf to the Department for a ‘super-recommendation’ often on grounds of investment in Belize. There are examples provided in the Audit Report. Earlier, former Minister of State […]
Magistrate Norman Rodriguez went to work early this morning at around seven- thirty to avoid the glare of the cameras waiting for his unprecedented appearance in court. But his arraignment for rape did not happen until hours later before Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith, after which we were able to capture only seconds of his […]
Appearing at today’s public hearing of the Senate Special Select Committee at the National Assembly in Belmopan was former Minister of State for Immigration and Nationality, Elvin Penner. This is the first appearance of any Minister of Government, past or present, at the Committee since it opened its public hearings last November. But more so […]
The Committee disagreed. Chairman Senator Aldo Salazar told Penner that any questions put to him would not concern any action in court, nor that the Committee was in the process of a criminal investigation or finding because the Committee cannot recommend such except in the case of perjury. But his assurances were not enough for […]
And while that was Penner’s stance this morning, the Senate panel spent time on other matters before eventually returning to the Kim scandal in the afternoon session. What followed was a game of fencing between Penner and the Senators – the Senators probing for what they wanted, Penner doing his best to fend them off. […]
The thrust and parry continued with the panel’s Chairman, Aldo Salazar, scoring a point when he questioned Penner about the remarks of Gordon Wade, former Chief of Nationality at the department. Wade had told the inquiry and the auditors that Penner had approached him concerning the Kim file at some point after his appearance with […]
Chairman Salazar tag-teamed out to Senator Eamon Courtenay, who turned to the question of how Penner and Kim met in the first place. Here the former Minister was a little more forthcoming, but not very. He was asked where he was introduced to Kim’s “friends” and was quickly shut down by Penner, who did not […]
Penner was able to give further details of his meetings with Kim, which took place in both Chinas – the People’s Republic or Mainland China, and the Republic of China, on Taiwan. Kim is South Korean by nationality. The question is whether Penner was meeting with Kim in an official capacity as a Minister of […]
Back to the Senate Inquiry, which concluded just before four p.m. today…The issue of ministerial recommendations for visas in particular, especially to Asian nationals, has been a major thorn in the side of the Barrow administration. News Five has seen and obtained documents showing hundreds of such recommendations by multiple Ministers. Former Minister of State […]
Penner also contends that some visas which he recommended for approval were not approved. But why was it necessary to go through it, especially if it was not intended to positively influence the approval of the application? The former Minister of State admits he does not remember correcting anyone who asked for his assistance by […]
The panel turned to other questionable grants of nationality mentioned in the Audit Report. In the case of Yakup Sut, a Turk whom Penner met in Germany, it was clear that he had not met the requirements for Belizean nationality despite vetting by Penner himself. He still contends that he was personally satisfied that Sut […]
Another infamous case is that of Peter Pang, whose nationality certificate was backdated; his file was missing despite being requested by the Auditors, and there was no evidence that Pang had paid for his certificate. More importantly, Pang was not here long enough to qualify for nationality, having entered in April of 2013, though his […]
