And so, while the Immigration Department enjoyed a great day, courtesy in part by the US Embassy, one Belizean family has had a very poor time since morning.
That's after 28 year-old Deon Bruce was detained by police in relation to the extradition order presented to Belizean authorities, by the US Government.
According to the US, he's wanted for a slew of charges which includes murder. The extradition order was presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on last week Tuesday, and yesterday, Bruce was finally picked up.
This caused his family to go into a wave of panic because he was picked up and denied the ability to speak to family, and to his attorney.
Our colleagues at Love TV were out there at the police station where Bruce was being held, and they spoke to attorney Michael Peyrefitte who explained the difficulties he had been having with the officers:
Michael Peyrefitte - Attorney
"The person has a right to make a phone call, the person has a right to consult immediately without delay with an attorney at law. Come to the police station on Queen's street, the duty officer has made it very clear to me that I am not - even as an attorney - not allowed to see Mr. Bruce who is a person who is detained. Mr. Bruce in my opinion is being illegally detained and his constitutional rights are seriously being violated. No police seem to have an answer. Clearly some of the police officers there would for me to see him seeing that that is the proper process. But the direction from Mr. Vidal that absolutely nobody is to see Mr. Bruce - no food allowed, no communication, no attorney and that is something that I feel the need to speak about, that is absolutely wrong. The standard process is that when decent police have people detained - you come here, you ask to see the person, you talk to the person and the police will give you an indication 'Mr. Peyrifitte this person is in here for murder or whatever and is pending investigation and that is fine. You at least know what the person is detained for, you at least get a chance to speak to the person so that the person can give you instructions necessary . But all I got from the corporal is just a bland - 'Mr. Peyrefitte you can't see your client."
Reporter
"In light in what they have told you, what can you do now as the attorney for this man?"
Michael Peyrefitte
"The best that can be done is to apply for a habeas corpus for him to appear before the Supreme Court tomorrow. The Supreme Court will require from the state to give a reason for his detention and an explanation as to why he was not allowed to see his attorney. Essentially that's all that can be done unless the GSU want to whisk him off tonight then the courts don't open 24-7 for better or for worse. I imagine it's a normal strategy by the police, I can imagine that if I get to speak to Mr. Bruce then he has options - if they want to extradite him then he can wave exraditial proceedings here and disappear wherever they have indicted him in the states, presumably. Or he can say no that he wants to exercise all his rights in Belize before he's extradited. I think the police just want to prevent him from saying to anybody that he wants the process to happen here. So I think that is why they don't want anybody to speak to him whether attorney or civilians so no food is allowed to be taken to him, he's not been given a phone call, he's not been able to see an attorney - nobody. We had hear from some outside source that he's here at the police station. He came into the police station and they told us he was detained and they told me 'even though you're an attorney - you cannot see him."
And so, while that was the information that attorney Michael Peyrefitte was given, today the commander of GSU Assistant Superintendent Marco Vidal released a statement today to the media in which he denied all allegations that he or his unit had participated in any unlawful denial of rights.
More than that, he said that his officers didn't even pick up Bruce.
His statement said, quote,
"I wish to say that the GSU was not at all involved in the detention of Mr Bruce. I have been able to confirm that another Unit took him into custody yesterday. I cannot speak on behalf of the Commander of that Unit but I can say that as the Commander of the GSU, I have never given any instructions to anyone to deny a person in police custody the exercise of his rights and will never do so."
His statement continues,
"It is regrettable that the attorneys of Mr Bruce were misinformed and I intend to have this matter looked into. I had spoken to Mr Bruce's Attorney, Mr Peyrefitte last night after hearing the news and that he had indicated that he would contact the media on the issue, but I am of the view nonetheless that I should address it personally."
End quote.
And so, while that is the official position of the GSU, today, Deon Bruce was given his opportunity to have his day in court.
The details of his detention and the extradition request were presented before the Chief Magistrate, and after that hearing, 7News was out there to speak to his attorney, Bryan Neal, about them:
Bryan Neal - Attorney
"Well there is a request from the United States Government that he be extradited to the United States to face various charges including murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and possession of a firearm."
Reporter
"Which state was this?"
Bryan Neal - Attorney
"It is alleged that it is in Chicago."
Reporter
"Can you tell us how does it look right now for your client?"
Bryan Neal - Attorney
"Well we don't have the evidence that the United States is relying on that will be provided on August the 1st but just looking at the warrant of apprehension it said that he was born in the Cayman Islands and my instruction was that he was born in Belize and has never visited the Cayman Islands. I was able to raise that objection a while ago as well as the warrant was not attached to the warrant of the apprehension so there are some issues that we intend to raise but we have to wait until we get the documents from the United States government."
Reporter
"When is it alleged that these instances occurred?"
Bryan Neal - Attorney
"In 2000, the warrant was issued in 2000 - I haven't had a real chance to go over the documents but the warrant was for 2000."
Reporter
"Looking into whether or not your client's constitutional rights were violated - what happened while he was at the station prior to come in today?"
Bryan Neal - Attorney
"Last night Mr. Peyrefitte, myself and Mr. Kareem Musa went to visit the prisoner at the Queen street police station and we were told that we could not see him. Following the interview that Mr. Peyrefitte gave, it seems the powers that they came to their senses and allowed him to have his constitutional rights and so we saw him late last night."
Reporter
"Will that be a separate case to be dealt with?"
Bryan Neal - Attorney
"Well he will sit as attorneys and we will discuss it and what avenues we have but definitely the violation of a person's constitutional rights cannot be countenance in this country."
Reporter
"Can you confirm if Mr. Bruce as residing in the states or had visited the US at anytime during the alleged time the incidents occurred?"
Bryan Neal - Attorney
"I don't know if the alleged time but he was at some point living in the United States and has recently returned to Belize a year and a half ago."
Voice of: Family Member
"First of all I only see this in movies and now that it's really happening to us in reality it's just surprising. I'm really upset about it because I don't think that's how it should be."
Reporter
"Do you know if Deon was in the US at the time of the alleged incidents?"
Voice of: Family Member
"To be honest I have no idea because I am here and I don't know where he was and they would have to prove that to me same way too."
And there's final part to ASP Vidal's statement.
He said, quote,
"I have also been reliably informed that media personnel were outside of Court this morning and so would have seen Mr. Bruce being taken by uniformed and members of the Unit in question and into their vehicle. I imagine that by now it must therefore be known that the report was erroneous."
End Quote.
We showed you the unit which escorted him to and from the court, but we've not been able to confirm that it was them who did pick Bruce up.
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