Close relative says the .22 bullets aren’t just rusty; they are “too rusty” for them to be any good
A family of four will be spending their first night at the Belize Central Prison tonight after police allegedly found six rounds of .22 calibre ammunition inside a safe in their home. Businessman Nazim Nasser, 42, his very pregnant wife, Jaziba, 36, and his two sons Jamal, 19, and Hilal, 18, were jointly charged with keeping the unlicensed ammunition.
According to police, between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., they visited the Nassers’ home on Coconut Drive in San Pedro Town, armed with a warrant to search for illegal firearms and ammunition.
Present at the time of the search was Nazim, and when police searched inside a safe that was in one of the bedrooms, they found the six S&B brand rounds.
Jamal Nasser had initially pleaded guilty to the charge, but after his lawyer, Lionel Welch, perused the amended act where firearms are concerned, he asked the court to read over the charge to his client, and he changed his plea to not guilty.
The other family members had already pleaded not guilty to the charge, and with Jamal’s not guilty plea, they were advised that they could not be offered bail, but that their lawyer could apply on their behalf at the Supreme Court.
A tearful Jaziba and her relatives were escorted outside the courtroom to the courthouse cell block to await their transferal to the prison. She was visibly emotional because she had to leave her young daughter at home, and as previously mentioned, she is eight months pregnant.
A relative informed us today that the house the Nassers were living in belonged to another relative of theirs, and had been vacant for about ten years. He said the Nassers only recently took up residence at the house, and that the bullets that the police found were not just rusty – they were too rusty to be any good.
He was stunned and appalled that the police would actually charge his family members for bullets so rusty, or even worse – actually have the audacity to arrest a woman who is in such an advanced stage of pregnancy.
The family is scheduled to return to court on November 29, 2013.