Bahamians, Rohn Knowles and Kelvin Leach, who were shoved under the public lens because of a billion-dollar securities fraud allegation brought by the US Government, have been battling their case against the Belizean Law enforcement, which was believed to be a holding charge while the Belizean government cooperated with the US Government to try to get them extradited to face grand jury charges in that country.
That charge is failing to declare funds over 10 thousand dollars, and according to the Police and the Immigration Officers, these men had cash in amounts above that limit when they tried to leave the country on a chartered flight last year in September. Their case has been ongoing before Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer, and so far, the FIU prosecutors couldn't get the cash they supposedly had in their possession admitted into evidence.
Today, their attorney, Godfrey Smith, got a chance to argue before the court that they should be freed of these charges because the FIU Prosecutors have not proven their case against him. The FIU attorneys were allowed to respond, and outside of court, Smith told the media, that his clients could be freed of these charges as early as the next adjourned date:
Godfrey Smith, SC - Attorney for the Defendants
"We as counsel for the defendants made a no case submission to the court. A no case submission simply means that we are of the view that after the prosecution and in this case the FIU, advanced all its evidence, they had failed to make out a case that the defendants, our clients, had committed an offence."
Daniel Ortiz
"What is this point that you are making at which point does the clients of yours commit this offence?"
Godfrey Smith, SC - Attorney for the Defendants
"Basically, the law says that if you are leaving Belize without making a declaration of funds to the FIU, you have committed an offence. Our basic argument was that the police intercepted, ambushed them in our view, as at the point where they had just checked in to the airport on a chartered flight. They had not progressed beyond that point to cross any booth immigration point, anything like that, at which ping we would say they would have had an opportunity to make a declaration. It was as chartered flight. They could have checked in and gone back down to the FIU and made a declaration. So, in short we were saying that the FIU acted prematurely, ambushed the defendants and by doing that, they made a fatal error in establishing their case. That is our argument in the no case submission."
Daniel Ortiz
"What happens in the next adjournment?"
Godfrey Smith, SC - Attorney for the Defendants
"At the next point which is Wednesday the 25th, the magistrate will give the decision as to whether or not she accepts that we have successfully made a no case submission. Is she rules that we have, that is an end of the matter. If she rules that we have not been successful in making a no case submission, then we have to then present our evidence for the defense."
This case goes back to court on Wednesday, February 25.
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