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Today Said, tomorrow Ralph!

GeneralToday Said, tomorrow Ralph!
The Police Headquarters in Belmopan was the staging ground for the first legal salvo fired at a member of the former government (PUP). This morning, despite the threat of inclement weather, Hon. Said Wilbert Musa, the former PUP leader and former Prime Minister of Belize, surrendered himself to police, then was escorted by at least two dozen policemen who walked with him from Police Headquarters to the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court, where he was arraigned on a single charge of theft.
 
Shortly after 9:00 a.m., Musa, flanked by his attorney, Senior Counsel Edwin Flowers (former Solicitor General), and the former Attorney General, Francis Fonseca, and Mr. Musa’s former driver, Robert “Small Change” Wagner, calmly walked up to the entrance of the police station.
 
Musa, area representative for the Fort George division, smiled and waved to about 50 of his chanting supporters before disappearing into the station.
 
When he emerged, it was evident that he was in police custody. This time he was flanked by a tight formation of policemen, who dutifully marched him past Independence Hill and into the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court.
 
The Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Cherry-Lynn Branker-Taitt, walked into the courtroom escorted by Senior Superintendent of Police, James Magdaleno.
 
The court was convened at exactly 10:03 a.m., as Magistrate Albert Hoare took his seat on the bench. Said Musa entered the defendant’s dock, from which he gave his name, address, age and listed his profession as an attorney and member of the House of Representatives.
 
Magistrate Hoare read one charge of theft of ten million US dollars and explained to Musa that the matter was an indictable one and that no plea would be taken from him.
 
Hoare offered bail to Musa in the sum of $100,000, and one surety for the same amount.
 
Acting DPP Branker-Taitt then agreed to an adjournment date that was set for January 9, 2009. The proceedings took exactly three minutes.
 
For his one count of theft, Said Musa has no shortage of legal guns. The defense team is made up of his lead attorney, Senior Counsel Edwin Flowers, who is backed up by attorneys Lisa Shoman, Anthony Sylvester, Jr., Francis Fonseca, his son – Kareem Musa, Arthur Saldivar, and Kevin Arthurs – a total of 7 attorneys.
 
Said Musa’s troubles began when he signed a guarantee with the Belize Bank for a loan that the Universal Healthcare Services (UHS) had borrowed from the bank. As Prime Minister, the UHS issue became a thorny one for Musa, who had to withdraw a motion that he tried to bring to the National Assembly in May of 2007. Had he gone through with the motion, it would have legally bound the government to repay the 33 million dollars to the Belize Bank.
 
Under pressure from serious public demonstrations and a threat from the business sector to hold back taxes, the then Prime Minister Musa withdrew the motion. Some of his very Cabinet members were not in support of it. One Cabinet member, Albert Division’s Mark Espat, was fired over his non-support for Musa’s 33-million gambit on the UHS debt.
 
The government was in a policy bind, because on the one hand it was pushing tertiary health care in its health care reform agenda, and on the other hand, there was this debt that it had guaranteed for UHS.
 
As the Minister of Finance, Musa secretly diverted half of a US 20-million-dollar gift to the people of Belize from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to settle the UHS debt with the Belize Bank. That was such a closely guarded secret that not even some of his Cabinet ministers knew about it.
 
The country learned that the UHS debt was settled with the Venezuelan grant funds after the new government of Prime Minister Dean Barrow came to power in February of this year. The Prime Minister and his party had vowed that they would make members of the former PUP Government answerable for their perceived financial irregularities.
 
Branker-Taitt told the media this morning that the decision was made by her to bring charges against Musa, and that she is confident that the charge will stick. She said that she would not have brought the charge if she did not have enough evidence to support it.
 
Branker-Taitt said that she would not bring any other charges against Musa in relation to this issue, but when it comes to other issues relating to UHS debt, other charges would be brought.
 
Branker-Taitt said that there would be no charges against Hon. Francis Fonseca and former CEO Amalia Mai, but a similar charge would be brought against the former Minister of Home Affairs and Housing, Ralph Fonseca.
 
Fonseca is expected to be charged as early as tomorrow, Friday, December 5. He also will be arraigned in the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court.  
 
For his part, Musa told the media that the charge against him is politically motivated and is directed by a vindictive government that wants to divert attention away from the serious economic problems that the country is facing. But, he maintains, he will be vindicated, because he “has done nothing wrong,” and he did not benefit personally from the funds that went into paying off the UHS debt to the Belize Bank.   
 
Musa called the Barrow administration a “rogue, totalitarian regime” that is harassing him with a trumped-up charge. He insists that the government is trying to divert attention from the amount of victimization and the taxes that they are raising…But the people are awake, I am sure they will not be fooled,” he told the media.
 
Following Musa’s arraignment this morning, a press release was sent out to the media, purportedly from the Belize Bank. The release, however, was not faxed with the bank’s letterhead, nor did it have a sender’s fax number.
 
It says that the charge against Said Musa is a matter for the courts to decide, and that the bank was not privy to any discussion between the Belize Government and the Government of Venezuela.
 
The release alleges that the government “used the tools of state to obtain free money from the bank,” and says that the Bank is entitled to collection of the UHS debt and “will do so in due course.” 

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