Justice of the Court of Appeal, Manuel Sosa, 60, was today elevated to the post of President of the Court, succeeding Elliott Mottley, whose resignation took effect at the end of December.
The swearing-in ceremony took place at Belize House, Belmopan, and was presided over by Governor General Sir Colville Young, with Attorney General B.Q. Pitts as a witness.
Sosa, briefly Chief Justice of Belize in 1998 and early 1999, has been in the legal profession for 34 years as a private attorney, former Justice of the Supreme Court (from 1993 to 1999) and has been on the Court of Appeal since 1999.
The Corozal native, married and a father of three, is a former Most Outstanding Law Student at the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica; former President and Vice President of the Belize Bar Association and member of the Bar Committee and Association of General Legal Counsel, and was appointed Ordinary Commander of the Civil Division of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Fellow judges on the court include Justices Denys Barrow, Dennis Morrison and Brian Alleyne.
The first session of the Court for 2011 is expected to convene in March.