Today President of COLA, Geovanni Brackett, and four others appeared in Belize City Magistrate's Court. The allegation goes back to October, when the BNTU strike was at its climax, and a tire fire was started on the BELCAN Bridge. While Brackett was nowhere near the bridge at the time, he was recorded at a BNTU rally talking about burning tires in support of the teachers, so - based on this and other evidence - police believe he was the one who orchestrated the bonfire. Brackett was charged for causing the fire, while four others were charged with setting it.
Their trial was set to start today, but after the prosecution failed to fully disclose the evidence, it was adjourned. Brackett and his attorney, Kareem Musa told us more...
Kareem Musa - Attorney, COLA
"Today was set for the hearing date for the matter with Mr. Geovanni Brackett, the president of COLA along with 5 other defendants. It was supposed to be for a trial, but the prosecution was once again at a loss. They did not have their disclosure ready. They were supposed to have partial disclosure on the last date. They were supposed to give us the remaining disclosure December 16th and even to this day we have not received disclosure, but there was an undertaking given today before the chief magistrate that disclosure would be made today and hopefully by the end of today we get that."
Reporter
"Under the new criminal procedure rules? There is a time limit for matters like this. Talk to us about that."
Kareem Musa - Attorney, COLA
"As you know this is a fresh knew matter, but we are promised to disclosure today so we are hoping that we can get that out the way and be ready for trail on March 22nd."
Geovanni Brackett - President. COLA
"I was hoping that we would have gotten this over with today. I think that it has been dragged far too long for a misdemeanor. Am I right? It's not like we are being charged for murder. I think that the political directorate of day, if they would show the same figure against their very own people who can scam people out of hundreds of thousands dollars of land deals and cheat this country out of precious land. If we can go after the murderers of Pastor Lucas or those who conspire against Pastor Lucas. There are so many different things that we can go after, but we choose to go after some shadow boxing. Today is just a day that we can see that justice is being pulled in the wrong the direction, but never the less we stand here innocent."
Full disclosure was expected to be given some time today but up to news time, it was still not forthcoming. The disclosure date was originally set for December.
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