In March of this year, Elvin Penner made national headlines when he became the first elected area representative to be criminally charged for official wrongdoing during the tenure of his own Government. Tonight, however, he's at home with his family, and he has been cleared of all charges brought against him.
As has been widely reported, he was implicated as the chief arranger in the issuance of the passport and nationality certificate of South Korean Won Hong Kim. Still, police never criminally charged him - and only launched a criminal investigation after the Supreme Court told them to do so.
And when the police didn't charge him, COLA did launching a private prosecution against Penner. But, the private prosecution was short of a critical element, first hand evidence.
And so, after only 4 short adjournments the case was struck out of court today. 7News was there in Belmopan when the disgraced former minister was acquitted and Daniel Ortiz reports:
Daniel Ortiz reporting
After 4 short adjournments, Former Minister of State Elvin Penner walked out of court a free man. The two immigration offences, brought against him by COLA's Geovannie Brackett and Nedal McLaren were thrown out.
The case went nowhere, really, because COLA couldn't produce any evidence against him. He also walked silently past the awaiting media, entered his vehicle, and he and his family drove away to the jeers and angry words from COLA's supporters. Foretold and expected, yet COLA made sure to remind everyone that they did what they could with the material they had.
Geovannie Brackett, President - COLA
"Most people didn't even believe that Penner would have shown up to court much less couple months later were back and forth in court. I know that it has been struck out here on the first trial day and yes, it is a sense of disappointment, but I think what that really does say the decision and the whole scenario from start to finish - what I think it does is a bigger discouragement to the people of Belize because we've seen how justice has been denied by every entity in coming here to try to get a fair trial against Mr. Penner. Mr. Penner - the case might have struck out today, but that isn't evidence that in the court of public opinion he is not guilty."
Kareem Musa, Attorney for COLA
"Mr. Brackett was able to take the stand to testify against Mr. Penner and basically what we did is that we lay the foundation putting it in a historical context of what has transpired so far starting firstly with the order of the Supreme Court in relation to the Commissioner of Police ordering him by way of writ of mandamus to do his job, to carry out his duties and investigate this matter. So we started with that premise and we then built up on the foundation thereafter showing the correspondence that we have made several attempts, not just one, but several attempts to the Commissioner of Police to try to obtain the investigative file, but of course it has ended up in futility as our head, our titular head of the judiciary. The Attorney General should be ashamed of himself, he is the titular head of this country when it comes to the judiciary. It is a disgrace to have a system where the system is not looking out for the interest of this nation - It is not. What happened after Mr. Brackett laid the foundation we then made an application pursuant to section 30 and I don't think that there is any clearer law that exists that shows that in fact the Commissioner of Police ought to have been summoned to come to court today."
COLA and its attorney stressed that in their view, the State used certain offices to frustrate their case by denying them evidence. They take that to mean that the Government doesn't want Penner successfully prosecuted.
And while that belief is strongly held, it didn't count for much in court, and the private prosecution failed. Musa says that an appeal is in order.
Kareem Musa, Attorney for COLA
"I know that the learned magistrate has given a ruling. I must say right off the bat that I wholeheartedly disagree with her ruling. She said that I believe the magistrate said that we needed to summon the Commissioner. That is an entirely different section of the law. The particular application that we made was under section 30 which states that: "On the statement of the complainant it comes to light that there are individuals in possession of files, of documents," she the magistrate, then has to exercise her discretion whether or not she would want that individual to come to court. So it's an entirely different section of the law and frankly speaking, I have advise my client right after the case that I think it's a good case for an appeal."
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