A mother in the Lake Independence area claims that just a few days after her 24 year old son was picked up by police under the state of emergency, he was brutally beaten and denied medical care while in custody at the Belize Central prison. 19 days have gone by since this worried mother has last seen or heard from her son. She claims that all the information she has obtained regarding her son's condition came from another inmate who called her from the prison.
Voice of: Concerned Mother
"He got detained by the police because they say he is wanted for a murder so I took him in and he stayed for four days. Then he called and said Mom it's time for me to come out so when they were about to release him the GSU came out and they told him that he has to stay he can't come out anymore because of the state of emergency so we did that he stayed. He called me 2 days after and said mom i'm going up, i told him to call me when he arrives but he didn't. Another inmate called and told me he arrived safe okay so like a couple weeks after that's when i got the call August 8th that something happened in the prison and him and 2 other guys were fighting and five inmates beat him up and burst open his face that was the 8th so they called me again and told me to go up there with a lawyer because they don't want to take him to the doctor and he's bruised up bad and his face is still swollen."
Jo-
"And do you think that maybe if there wasn't a state of emergency he would have been out by now and then this wouldn't have happened?"
Voice of: Concerned Mother
"Yes that would have happened, he still would be getting targeted by police though it's like as they see him the harass him."
Jo-
"And as a mother how do you feel knowing that he's back there and you're out here trying to use every resource to help your son?"
Voice of: Concerned Mother
"Man, I feel bad because many nights I can't sleep for many nights. I can't sleep when he's out here and when he's in there because sometimes when he's out here I still have this pain in my head, and then when he's back there I don't know what's happening to him because we can't call or we can't see them so it's rough."
We reached out to Virgilio Murillo the CEO at the Kolbe foundation today for a comment but he declined saying that people like to play games and he will not entertain them.
