Police say former UDP Minister Rene Montero is a wanted man tonight - but his attorney says the cops only want to make political scenery.
We start a few hours ago, when the media received - from political, not police sources - a copy of a warrant issued on September third for Rene Montero and former Ministry of Works employee.
The warrant says that Montero and the Ministry of Works employee are wanted to answer to a rarely used charge called "Willful Oppression". The warrant says they exercised "willful abuse of their authority which caused injury to the public." This allegedly happened between 2016 and 2020.
When we look in the law book, the offence states specifically "A public officer…is guilty of wilful oppression in respect of the duties of his office if he wilfully commits any excess or abuse of his authority to the injury of the public or of any person…."
It carries a two year jail term for those convicted - and we don't know of anyone who has ever been convicted of this.
As we understand it, the argument will be made that Montero and the Ministry employee used government heavy machinery, fuel and public officers to do work on private property over 3 years.
Police told us that they can't find Montero to charge him and this they issued the warrant. Reliable police sources also tell us that around 5pm on Saturday Rene Montero showed up at the Belize northern border in an attempt to leave the country and was refused exit by immigration officials and thereby returned back into Belize. At the time, he was traveling with 2 others in a red Toyota Hilux with San Ignacio license plates.
But… his attorney says otherwise - he says Montero is in the US. His attorney Orson Elrington says in a statement, quote, "Our client is currently not in the country and away for medical reasons. At the time our client departed the country, he was totally unaware and oblivious to the warrant or that there was a complaint against him. Further, a simple check at the border points would have indicated to the police that our client is not in the jurisdiction. Moreover, a telephone call to a member of his family or his attorney would have revealed this information to the police. Quite strangely, as of the writing of this press release, no police officer has contacted my client to determine his whereabouts; and neither has anyone spoken to any member of his family or even visited his residence in a bona fide effort to convey the existence of the warrant to him. This raises very serious concern in regard to the motives behind the manner in which the warrant has been publicized in what is clearly a malicious prosecution." end quote. The release adds, quote, "Our client wishes to convey that he has every intention of returning to Belize in order to answer and vindicate himself against these baseless charges which he views as trumped up by the Belize Police Department to serve their political masters." End quote.
