| One SOE, Two Divergent Decisions From High Court |
| Mon, May 19, 2025 |
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Two High Court judges have delivered conflicting rulings on the constitutionality of the July 2020 State of Emergency declared in parts of Belize City.
On May 15th, Justice Nadine Nabie ruled that the SOE was unconstitutional, saying it was used as a crime-fighting tool, not a response to a true national emergency. She awarded 372,000 in damages to 16 young men who were detained-some for over a month-without proper legal review.
But just two weeks earlier, Justice Rajive Goonetilleke reached a different conclusion. He found that the spike in gang violence - including what he called seven murders in one day - posed a serious enough threat to justify the emergency. He also ruled that the detainees had been given reasons for their arrest, and that there was no constitutional breach.
So where does that leave us? Are SOE's constitutional or not? Well, legal experts say we may not know until both cases now head to the Court of Appeal to determine how far the government can go in using emergency powers to combat crime.
Notably, Leeroy Banner was the attorney for the claimants in both matters.
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