This morning at about 9:00 a.m. Belizean justices, magistrates, attorneys, prosecutors and law enforcement officers gathered at a church service held at Wesley Methodist Church to begin the ceremonial opening of the legal year of the Supreme Court.
At about 10:15 a.m., after blessings by Rev. C. David Goff, the President of the Methodist Church, and Bishop Dorick Wright of the Roman Catholic Diocese, a procession followed through the streets of Belize City. Led by the Chief Justice, Dr. Abdulai Conteh, newly appointed justices of the Supreme Court, other judges and members of Belize Bar Association, the procession marched onto South Street and then Regent Street, where they gathered in front of the Supreme Court building.
The Chief Justice then went into his courtroom, where he and the Attorney General, Hon. Francis Fonseca, addressed those gathered for the occasion.
In his speech Chief Justice Conteh first welcomed to the bench the two newly appointed judges of the Supreme Court – Justice Herbert Lord, formerly the Chief Magistrate, and Justice Minnet Hafiz-Bertram, former Registrar General.
The C.J. said, “I have every confidence they will live up to the expectations of the office of a judge and the public generally.”
He also introduced the newly appointed Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Margaret Gabb McKenzie, the first female to sit in the post.
Attorney General Fonseca spoke of the Legal Aid and Advice Act of 2006, which established a Legal Aid and Advice council comprised of 9 members. It allows low income people, especially women who are marginalized, to get legal assistance.
The Supreme Court today saw many elevations, such as that of Aldo Josué Salazar, formerly an attorney working in Young’s Law Firm, to the post of Registrar General. He succeeds Minett Hafiz-Bertram, who is now a justice of the Supreme Court.
The C.J. also acknowledged the newly appointed librarian for the Supreme Court, Audrey Grinage, who succeeds retired librarian Sylvia Hulse.
Cheryl Lynn Branker-Taitt has been appointed Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, and Dorothy Humes has succeeded retired Assistant Registrar Raymond Usher, who served the department for 30 years.
The gathering was invited to cocktails to mark the end of the ceremonies and the opening of the January session of the Belize Supreme Court.
The January session will see 43 cases during the four-month period. They include fourteen cases for murder; six for attempted murder; four for rape; five for carnal knowledge, with others such as arson, incest, robbery and theft.
We understand that two high profile cases are scheduled to commence sometime later this month. These are the case against prominent businessman Ben Abou-Nehra, charged with the murder of Belize City resident Shawn Copious, and the other is the case against two teenaged boys charged with the murder of Belize City resident and Lords Bank maid, Naomi Garcia, 20, who was brutally killed while at her employers’ home in Lords Bank, Ladyville.