| San Pedro Daily |  |
Thursday,
January
14,
2010 Belize's Daily- 7 Days a Week |
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ISLAND
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Five men freed of murder charge after
a year without evidence
Five men charged with a sensational
murder at La Isla Bonita are
free tonight after the charges against them were withdrawn earlier
today in the San Pedro. The men were charged in connection with the
shooting murder of twenty-eight year old John Paul Saldivar, a tour
guide who worked at Patajos in San Pedro Town in January of 2009. But
after a year behind bars, when the five accused went to court, there
was still no evidence against them presented by the office the Director
of Public Prosecutions. Instead, a directive was sent to withdraw
charged. Our court reporter, Anita Nembhard, spoke with Karim Musa who
defended four of the five men and who says that a constitutional case
could follow since the men were being held for too long without
evidence.
Karim Musa, Defense Attorney Myself along with Senior Counsel, Ellis Arnold, represented Charles Woodye, Micah Thompson, Shelton August and Kyle Patnett. Michael Peyrefitte represented the fifth co-accused, Mr. Eric Swan. What transpired this morning, the prosecutor, Mr. John Sanchez, presented a directive from the DPP informing the court that the DPP had made a decision to withdraw all charges against all five accused men. Anita Nembhard, Freelance Court Reporter What does this mean for the five accused men or the four that you represented? Does it mean since it was withdrawal that this murder charge can be brought back against these men? Karim Musa Well of course but the DPP and the police would need to have some evidence and throughout this case this case has been going on for the past year and it’s been adjourned I’d say about ten times and on each occasion the prosecution failed to present a single piece of evidence any of the accused so I don’t see how they could try to re-arrest these men again. I have already advised them that they ought to take a constitutional case against the Police Department and by extension the Government of Belize for wrongfully detaining them and in my opinion for maliciously prosecuting them over this year particularly because there is no evidence and they knew all along that there was no evidence against these men so they ought not to have held them for an entire year and in my opinion this amounts to nothing short of preventative detention. CH5 PRISON OFFICERS BENEFIT
FROM MERIDA INITIATIVE Eight Prison Officers were selected to
attend a seven-week Correctional
Officer Cadet Basic Training Course sponsored by the Merida Initiative
and held at the New Mexico Corrections Department Training Academy in
Santa Fe, New Mexico. Prison Officers will learn basic instruction
techniques, leadership roles, defensive tactics, search procedures,
inmate transports, evidence management, train-the-trainer instruction,
and other prison administrative and operational procedures. One goal of
the Merida Initiative is to improve the capacity of the Belizean
judicial system. A release from the US Embassy says prison officials
need techniques, training, and equipment to strengthen control of
prisons, especially those housing suspected gang members. Ultimately,
the eight Prison Officers will be better prepared to provide
instructions at the prison’s training academy upon their return to
duty. To date, a total of thirty Belizean officials have
benefitted
from training through the Merida Initiative.
Love FM COMPOL Jeffries
Says
Crime Was Down in 2009  Police Commissioner Crispin
Jeffries made it known that he was
pushing for a 10% reduction in crime for 2009. Well, the numbers are
in; he got only 4%. But we venture to say that if you ask anyone in
virtually any corner of Belize they’d say that the numbers are wrong
crime was not down. And while that’s the feeling, here’s what the
figures say: In every quarter of the year, there was a decrease in the
number of crimes reported. So the figure was down by 93 crime between
the first and second quarters, down by 48 between the second and third
quarters, and down by 288 between the third and fourth quarters. In simplest terms, that means that there were 420 fewer crimes reported nationwide from October to December 2009 than there were from January to March 2009. If you were living on some other country you’d say that’s impressive. But if you’re living here’s you’re probably shaking your head. Jules Vasquez was and he challenged Commissioner Jeffries, saying that while the numbers may not be a lie, the picture they paint is certainly not accurate. Jules Vasquez, I know you were targeting 10%. Are you satisfied that you realized that? Crispin Jeffries, Commissioner of Police Never Delay Oil
Field was Declared Commercial
Last night we told you about the article in
the Belfast
Telegraph an Irish news paper which did a piece on Susan Morrice the
Irish Woman who is a principal shareholder in Belize Natural Energy.
The article was news to us because it casually discloses information that has never been made official in Belize. Information such as the projection that there are 20 million barrels recoverable from the Spanish lookout Oil Field. That far surpasses earlier estimates given out in Belize. Also of note was the blithe disclosure that they have started production on a new oil field which has not been announced in Belzie. Presumably that’s the oil find in the Never Delay area. In fact, yesterday Deputy Director of the Department of Geology Craig Moore told us that is still being appraised. Well today, Moore called us to say differently. He says that he was mistaken, the Never Delay Field was declared commercial on November fifth 2009. That’s over two months ago and nothing has been said by anyone in Belizean official-dom. CH7 NOTICES
&
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR AC
CofC
Meeting
today,
Thursday
-
Noon
at
Blue
Water
Grill
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 www.grandcaribe.com debbiewade@gmail.com
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© SAN PEDRO DAILY, PO Box 45, San Pedro Town, Belize. Inquiries to editor@sanpedrodaily.com |
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