Deputy Director of Immigration Gareth Murillo had his home searched and he was detained by police this weekend. At 6:30 on Saturday, a police team descended on Murillo's home in the Fort George Area and conducted a complete search. After that Murillo was taken to the police station and held at the Crimes Intelligence Unit office to await questioning from the Head of the National Crimes Investigation Branch, Senior Superintendent Mario Vernon. But Vernon never came, and when it became apparent that Murillo, was being held for no clear reason Attorney Michael Peyrefitte became involved. He told us what happened.
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney
"When I got on it, I started to push some buttons and I asked what was going on here, its false imprisonment to just have a person at the Police Department just like that. What do you want with him? And of course, I informed a senior member of the Police Department that if it continued then certainly charges or a suit would certainly be filed. Mr. Vernon never came and so then I contacted top brass in the Police Department and I told them you cannot just detain a man because the Police Department wants to see him and then just have him there until Mr. Vernon is ready, you either have to charge him or release him, or take the statement from him. We were informed that they were going to take a statement from him and based on that statement they will determine whether or not they will hold him further or they would arrest him or they would release him. It's highly improper. What I told them is that if you want to speak to Mr. Murillo, even as a suspect, at least have the decency to have the officer, who wants to speak to him, to be there when he gets there and not having him there all morning just for the person to never come at all. So certainly it is unusual and highly disrespectful to have a senior official like that, in that condition, on very little, if any, evidence at all."
That statement was recorded from Murillo and later that same day in Belmopan, police interviewed and recorded a statement from Director of Immigration Jose Carmen Zetina. Zetina, however, was not made to endure the indignity of having his home searched at dawn.
Notably in the search of Murillo's home, Peyrefitte confirmed that police found a specimen passport which Murillo uses for instructional purposes. Murillo was on vacation when 200 blank passports were discovered missing a week ago. None of the passports have been recovered. 7NEWS has learned that this evening, another senior immigration officer has been detained since morning.
