A twenty-five-year-old man has been charged for the stabbing death of fifty-four-year-old Marcelino Chan. Last month we told you how Chan a cane cutter of San Roman Village in Orange Walk was stabbed to death when he tried to intervene in a domestic dispute. The man who knifed him is allegedly Mario Aguirre of the […]
Police Corporal Darrel ‘Tutsi’ Usher remains in police custody tonight after being busted with a little over twenty pounds of marijuana over the weekend. According to his colleagues at Eastern Division, a man was observed exiting from an overgrown property in the Faber’s Road Extension area. The individual was seen lugging a large bag which […]
While Usher is in trouble with his department; a police officer found guilty for the theft of a handheld radio stolen from the Belize Police Department was granted an appeal and his conviction for a three month prison sentence set aside. In September 2014, Officer Jamil Scott and his girlfriend, Jellsi Zapeta were both charged […]
Our coverage this week of Wednesday’s Senate Inquiry has been extensive, but tonight, we touch on two more issues. A combative Lindsay Wade directly challenged the Senate panel on his guilt or innocence in relation to the removal of eight visa foils from the Western Border office where he worked in 2012. Wade, who says […]
As we have already seen in the Senate Inquiry and confirmed by no less than Minister of Immigration Godwin Hulse, the business of visas, especially for Chinese nationals, is big and often murky. Accountant Patrick Tillett ran a side business as a facilitator for friends in Belize who wanted visas for their countrymen to visit […]
Is this man the shadowy “Mister Middleton” to whom all focus has turned in the ongoing Senate public inquiry? Middleton, we are told, is a car salesman based in Orange Walk Town, but it is his activities in Immigration that have landed him in the news. On Wednesday, News Five brought you the various testimonies […]
Another layer of intrigue has been added to the ongoing investigations of the Senate Special Select Committee. On Wednesday, former Deputy Mayor Eric Chang; accountant and Financial Controller with the Belize City Council Patrick Tillett; and former Immigration Officer at the Western Border Station, Lindsay Wade, all appeared, telling widely different stories and leaving an […]
The then Ambassador of Belize to the Republic of China (Taiwan), Cherie Nisbet, detailed in emails later used by the Audit her encounter with Eric Chang on the day he sought Belizean visas for two businessmen from Korea, who were to visit Honduras, but wanted to come to Belize in search of “investment opportunities.” Ambassador […]
Comments have been limited in light of the edict of the Standing Orders on publication of evidence from within the Senate Special Select Committee; even though it is broadcasting its hearings live. But that does not prohibit public discourse and the Leader of the Opposition updated his position when questioned by News Five today. He […]
While the Prime Minister was crunching the numbers at the Biltmore, the Senate Select investigation was taking place in the capital where insights into the immigration illegalities were coming from witnesses. Now, it took a summons carrying more legal weight than an extended invitation, but today former Belize City Deputy Mayor Eric Chang appeared with […]
Chang also specifically denied helping anyone obtain Belizean visas, nationality and passport except in the case of a Taiwanese-Belizean whose daughter had obtained nationality by descent and needed a passport as part of her documentation to attend school. The involvement he spoke to was germane to a discussion as part of a gathering at his […]
All good stories, perhaps, are long stories, and the case of Won Hong Kim is a good one. The revelation that former Minister of State Elvin Penner assisted the jailed South Korean fugitive to obtain Belizean nationality and a passport was strange enough. But the unveiling of Eric Chang as a possible accomplice was even […]
Outside, Chang consented to answer a few questions from the press. He reiterated that he was here to clear his name and that he felt that went well enough. But when asked if he felt he was believable, all he would say is that it was a matter of opinion and that he did the […]
Another witness who had to be summoned to appear before the Senate Special Select Committee was accountant Patrick Tillett, who readily provided details of his involvement in applying for visas – which are not routinely sold. Tillett, who at the time was also a financial controller with the Belize City Council, testified that facilitating visas […]
Unbelievable as it may sound, Tillett says there are people willing to pay thousands of dollars to have someone like him work through immigration agents to get their documents facilitated, assuming that is that the process was above-board. In this case, however, he found that there was something wrong with the visas. Tillett takes the […]
The Senators, to say the least, found it unbelievable that Tillett would be willing to cover the loss on the visas if the transaction, as he insisted, was above-board. Try though they might, they were not able to budge Tillett from his testimony. After Tillett claimed to be unsure of whether he could be considered […]
The final witness at today’s public hearing was former Immigration Officer at the Western Border Station, Lindsay Wade. He was formally accused in the Auditor General’s Report as the man who took the missing visa foils from the Cabinet over the Christmas holiday, a charge he denies. Wade says the one and only time he […]
On Friday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal, whose jurisdiction includes the state of Florida, upheld a ruling in favor of businessman Glenn Godfrey. The initial decision, in respect of INTELCO leasing telecoms equipment to government, was handed down by the U.S. Court for the Southern District of Florida. Successive governments compensated Godfrey for the […]
Glenn D. Godfrey’s GDG Acquisitions LLC has had a judgment of twenty-two million US dollars plus in its favour against the Government of Belize upheld by a U.S. Court of Appeal. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal, with jurisdiction in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, upheld the decision of the U.S. Court for the Southern District […]
Mark Seawell is not headed home tonight, but the Supreme Court has opened a lifeline in his long-running extradition case. With his brothers Gary and Duane, he has been fighting to avoid extradition to Ohio, U.S.A., to face charges of ran a marijuana and cocaine business involving so-called “shoe mules” between 1994 and 1997 in […]
On Friday afternoon sometime after two, twenty-four-year-old Brandon Bennett was shot in the stomach as he rode his bike on the Belcan Bridge. The gun man identified in that shooting is Lindburgh Clarke, but he remains at large up to news time. Clarke was accompanied by another man who has since been identified as the […]
Aside from superbond payments, government is facing another multimillion dollar payment. Glenn D. Godfrey’s GDG Acquisitions LLC has had a judgment of ten million dollars plus in its favour against the Government of Belize upheld by a U.S. Court of Appeal. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal, with jurisdiction in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, upheld […]
Representatives of the Public Sector Workers Trust appeared in the Supreme Court earlier today before Justice Courtenay Abel, to settle a decades-old matter involving the organization. The claim arose out of an issue dating back to 1995 when the then Esquivel administration froze increments for public officers. That freeze would later give way to dialogue […]
According to B.N.T.U. National President Luke Palacio, the court has pointed out that there is confusion in the language used in the trust document, particularly in a release issued by government back in 2014 when the accounts were handed over to the unions. Luke Palacio, National President, B.N.T.U. “This matter has been going on […]
Double murder suspect, twenty-year-old Jayear Flores, who is on remand for two murders in the city, one including a seven-year old school boy and an adult today began to serve a one-year sentence imposed upon him by Magistrate Norman Rodriguez. This came after he changed his not guilty plea to guilty to a charge of […]
