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Tonight, the family of 18 year-old Wilser Echeverria, the man accused by police of killing Panamanian Diplomat Jose Rodrigo De la Rosa Stanford, continues worry about his fate because police have charged him for murder, but in a confounding twist, the Sitting Magistrate is refusing to arraign him. It all pivots on his claim that he killed the diplomat in self defence because the man wanted to rape him gunpoint.

For a few hours today, he was indeed charged by investigators with the capital offence, and Belmopan police marched him before Magistrate Aretha Ford this morning. The arraignment should have gone through, and since it is an indictable offence, no plea would have been taken and Echeverria would have sat in jail on remand for months until the DPP's Office was able to proceed with a Supreme Court case against him.

So, when the police prosecutor presented Echeverria before the Magistrate, his defense attorneys Dickie Bradley and Michelle Trapp-Zuniga, intervened on his behalf before the arraignment could take place.

His attorneys pointed out to the Magistrate that under the Criminal Code, a person who claims self-defense cannot be criminally charged unless a written leave from the Director of Public Prosecutions is given to grant permission. The law says quote, "Where a person is alleged to have killed another person and the accused person claims that he did so for the prevention of or for the defence of himself…no charge shall be laid or prosecution commenced against such person for the offence of murder except with the leave of the Director of Public Prosecutions given in writing."

The premise of the procedure, the defence said, was the ensure that a man who acted in self-defence should not have to sit in jail on remand, waiting for his day in court, without the explicit authority of the prosecuting office – in this case DPP Vidal – that they are sufficiently convinced that they can disprove his claim of justifiable force and harm.

After querying the letter of the law for herself, the Magistrate agreed with the defence's submissions and refused to arraign Echeverria on the charge of murder because there was no written leave from DPP Cheryl Lynn Vidal. We understand that at some point during the arraignment the police prosecutor submitted to the Magistrate that indeed, the police department had sent the files to the DPP's Office, that they had gotten that leave from Vidal, and that its arrival at the Magistrate's Court is imminent. The Magistrate then asked him to produce that document, or else the arraignment would not proceed.

But, you may remember that the now infamous memo sent from Assistant Police Commissioner Blackett, which we showed you last night. For context, you may remember that it said, quote "The Practice of consulting the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions as to whether to charge a person for murder or any other crime must cease forthwith." End quote. That strong instructions down the chain of command is still in effect, and Belmopan Police were following the orders that they were given.

We understand that the police prosecutor had to recant his statement to the Magistrate that the DPP's Office had given the leave to charge Echeverria when a query was done. As it turned out in fact, the Police Department was not awaiting any instructions or advice from the DPP's Office, and the Prosecutor informed the Magistrate of this afterwards.

So, that's where it stands tonight, Belmopan Police having charged Echeverria with murder, his defence team insisting that the DPP's Office must give its input, and the DPP's Office having not seen the file, creating an embarrassment of the law procedures, all because of that police memo.