^{_{Photo: Snippet from police body cam}}

by Charles Gladden

BELMOPAN, Thurs. Aug. 15, 2024

A University of Belize (UB) student was reportedly severely beaten by police after he allegedly committed a minor traffic infraction.

According to reports, the victim, Belmopan resident Omar Matus, was involved in a minor fender bender on Monday, August 12, after leaving campus to purchase some supplies, and allegedly got into a confrontation with police officers, who detained him and put him in the back of their mobile.

A recording captured by a body camera attached to one of the officers at the scene showed that after 10:30 a.m., the police mobile stopped near the FFB Stadium on the Hummingbird Highway. Matus can be seen handcuffed inside the mobile and kicking an officer who attempted to tie his legs with a zip-tie cable while the other held his arms and neck.

The video subsequently shows a struggle taking place between Matus and an officer, and a look of discomfort can be seen on Matus’ face. Further on in the video, Matus is seen drenched in blood and injured, allegedly at the hands of those officers, and handcuffed to a bed at the Western Regional Hospital.

Matus’s attorney, Arthur Saldivar, has also revealed that his client is losing vision in his left eye.

“He received such a beating that he had to be … his eye had to be stitched up at the hospital; and he suffered tendon damage to his right hand. He’s bruised all over, from a minor traffic accident, with no fatalities—a fender bender, so to speak; that doesn’t warrant that kind of treatment. That’s way beyond what is acceptable,” he said.

“… my client is maintaining that he did not do anything to warrant the treatment that he received, and in so far as the police have a responsibility to enforce the law, there is no circumstance justifiable for the police to brutalize a citizen in custody,” Saldivar went on to say.

According to Saldivar, Matus had previous run-ins with the law, as police had allegedly once attempted to extort him of money, beaten him, and had taken away his possessions. However, other reports suggest that Matus has a history of traffic accidents and has on several occasions refused to provide a sample of his body fluids so that it could be determined whether he was driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Matus was arraigned in the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, August 14, on charges that include resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. He was released on bail, and is set to return to court in October.