And while those wheels of process turn in Belmopan, today at the Supreme Court in Belize City, the PUP went to the Supreme Court to file a writ of mandamus – basically asking the court to make the Commissioner of police arrest Elvin Penner for violating the passport and nationality act.
This move comes after the party gave Commissioner Allen Whylie 7 days to respond to their request, which he ignored. So the PUP went to court to file the application today and we spoke to the legal advisor:
Anthony Sylvestre - Legal Advisor, PUP
There's been no response to that letter and so, as a consequence, we are forced to actually take this course of action and actually initiate judicial review proceedings against the commissioner."
Hipolito Novelo - Love News
"Is there any indication that the Com Pol even open and read the letter. Well, there was no formal - or any response to our office, but I did read in the Amandala that Rowland Parks was lucky to have a reply given to him from the Commissioner. But, there hasn't been anything formal that has been submitted to our office."
Rowland Parks - Amandala Press
"In terms of this particular Supreme Court application, how easy or how difficult is it to prove that the Commissioner can or cannot act under the circumstances"
Anthony Sylvestre
"As everybody will appreciate, it's a matter of urgency in, you know, the commissioner, and indeed the police department, acting. The six-month limitation period will expire in early March, so there's a matter of urgency and certainly we don't to be, because the matter has been filed, we don't want to actually prejudge it. But certainly that is the basis or that is the crux of the application that there is some urgency and the action of the police and the commissioner is one which has caused a lot to be questioned, that there has been no timely response and request."
Sylvester also addressed that other issue raised by Prime Minister Dean Barrow earlier this week. He said if the PUP were so confident of their case, they could have launched a private prosecution. Sylvester told the media today that they would have had to have first hand knowledge and evidence of what Penner did:
Anthony Sylvestre
I think the Prime Minister, as all of us are well aware, is indeed an extreme clever and intelligent individual, and I think what he has done is regrettable because actually, it has murkied the water. As some may know, under our laws, the Summary Jurisdiction Procedure Act, there is a general right for any person to indeed make a complaint where a summary offense has been committed but here's the thing, a person can only make a complaint if that person has firsthand knowledge of it. So that, for instance, if it were a situation where all of us, indeed all of us had access to the Immigration Department's files and we could go in and we could view for ourselves the files, the nationality certificate files, the passport files, then certainly we would be in a position to be able to file a complaint and be able to marshal evidence in a court of law. But as it is right now the only persons who are in a position to do that would be the Minister of Immigration, the Director of Immigration and the Prime Minister himself has made certain pronouncements. So it seems as though he himself also has firsthand knowledge of the issuance of the passport and the nationality certificate."
The application was just filed at the registry and no date has yet been set by the court.
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