After 1 year and 3 months on remand, 22 year-old Mexican Zurisaday Villasenor Mendez, who was busted with weapons cache at the northern border, is out on bail tonight.
That bail hearing occurred last week Friday before Justice Troadio Gonzalez where the DPP's Office objected on the ground that Mendez is a flight risk. After consideration of all evidence, Justice Gonzalez granted him bail of $75,000 cash on the condition that he must surrender his travel documents and return back to court on February 18, 2014. That hearing was Friday, but it took some time to arrange the bail, so he was sent back to prison and just got free this afternoon.
Mendez's trial was moved from the Corozal Magistrate's Court to the Belize City Magistrate's Court because of security concerns, but though it has already started, the case is on hold because his attorneys have filed a constitutional motion in the Supreme Court. They are arguing that Mendez's constitutional rights have been violated because he has been on remand for almost 16 months.
That case is still pending.
Viewers may remember that on October 30, 2012, Corozal police conducted an operation in the Corozal Free Zone at the Las Vegas Hotel where they found 7 guns, 12 magazines and 144 bullets, an assortment of communication devices which they said that they could connect to him.
