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Elvin Penner will face the music!!

HeadlineElvin Penner will face the music!!

Despite the best efforts of the Barrow administration, the disgraced Cayo Northeast area rep will face trial on July 24

AG Elrington has called COLA’s efforts “a waste of time”

Hon. Elvin Penner, the Cayo Northeast area representative who has been charged with two criminal offenses in a private prosecution by the Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action (COLA), appeared in the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court this morning, minus his usual entourage of supporters, who previously did their best to shield him from the media’s cameras.

The hearing was brief, as the COLA prosecutor, attorney Kareem Musa, handed a document, which constitutes disclosure of the evidence gathered so far for the case, to Penner’s attorney, Ellis Arnold, SC.

Belmopan Magistrate Aretha Ford has set July 24 as the date when Penner’s trial will begin.

COLA, in a private lawsuit, has laid two criminal charges against Penner. He was charged with a violation of the Belize Passport Act, and also a violation of the Belize Nationality Act, for his role in securing a Belize passport and Belize nationality certificate for the imprisoned South Korean criminal, Won Hong Kim.

Apparently, COLA has relied on information contained in the leaked preliminary Auditor General’s report to provide the necessary disclosure to Penner in an effort to avoid the case being struck out for want of prosecution.

The hard evidence that is needed to successfully prosecute Penner, however, is proving difficult for COLA to obtain, as getting that evidence from government officials and departments, under ministerial instructions, has proven to be as difficult as pulling a conch barehanded from its shell.

And indeed, Attorney General Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington has spoken contemptuously about COLA’s private prosecution effort, calling it “a waste of time.”

Outside the courtroom, Penner, the former Minister of State for Immigration, refused to speak to reporters.

As he opened the door of his pickup truck, Penner said, “I have no comments right now.”

Although ordered by the Chief Justice of Belize to conduct an investigation into the matter through a Supreme Court writ of mandamus, the Commissioner of Police, Allen Whylie, in defiance of the court order, has still not concluded the police’s investigation into the offenses committed in the fraudulent procurement of Belizean nationality.

Director of Public Prosecutions, Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, had issued certain directives to the police in their investigation of Penner’s role in the disgraceful Immigration passport scandal. Nothing has come out of the police’s investigation, however, that the DPP can rely on to lay the indictable charges against Penner, which she indicated are not statue-barred, like the summary charges COLA was forced to lay.

COLA president, Giovanni Brackett, said that today, the day for COLA to provide disclosure, was historical.

“You all in the media know how difficult it is to obtain the evidence,” Brackett said, and went on to state, “the Commissioner of Police is refusing to give us what he has. He’s in possession of the case file.”

“We are calling on those authorities to work with us, to do your jobs that you are paid to do. If you are paid to investigate, then investigate; if you are paid to prosecute, then prosecute,” Brackett said.

Kareem Musa, for his part, said that there is certain evidence that is in the possession of certain individuals.

“I am speaking about the Belizean passport issued to Won Hong Kim [the South Korean prisoner]; I am speaking about the immigration files concerning Won Hong Kim that the Auditor General’s report confirmed was taken out of the Immigration Department by the said defendant, Elvin Penner,” Musa said.

Musa added, “It is clear that there is a cover-up taking place, but we are going to work with what we have.”

Musa said that they remain optimistic, even though the Commissioner may not want to deliver the file, even though the passport remains in Taiwan, even though Mr. Penner is allegedly in possession of the immigration file for Won Hong Kim.

“There are sections of the law that we can rely on to still try to get those documents before the court, because that is material evidence, that amounts to obstruction of evidence,” Musa said, “and that is material evidence that we will still try to get before the court.”

Musa said there is a section of the law — Section 30 of the Summary Jurisdiction Procedure Act — that allows a Magistrate the discretion to order individuals who are in possession of material evidence to surrender that evidence to the court.

“And I will tell you right off the bat, we will be relying heavily on that section of the law,” Musa said.

Musa said that they will be making attempts to summon particular witnesses in the case. “We are trying our best under the circumstances where there is clear case of a cover-up”, he added.

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