Remember the case of the Association of Concerned Belizeans versus the government and the Belize Bank? Well, it's gone from the top of the news to the bottom of a high pile of scandal and wrongdoing in high places. Last we left it in July, the Belize Bank was going to the Court of Appeals, because its British attorneys said that the ACB was asking the Supreme Court for what's called declaratory relief, when it should have been asking for leave to apply for judicial review.
Well, the Court of Appeals made a ruling last week but it slipped beneath our radar. Yesterday President of the ACB David Vasquez and his attorney Lois Young Barrow explained what happened in court, what might be next, and how they plan to meet the next hurdle.
Lois Young, Attorney for ACB
"In court there was this sort of colonial underpinning to his presentation, that's the only way I can describe it. Its like, 'we have charted this course in England. We have case law going back centuries and evolving into our procedure and you in the Caribbean, you must be following our procedure in some way, so let us take what we have in England and super-impose it on what you have in Belize,' and the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal. We haven't had the reason for why they rejected it but from the exchange between the bench and the bar, it was that they felt that the regime in England was different from the regime in Belize."
Jules Vasquez,
Perseverance through litigation is a corporate strategy for Michael Ashcroft.
Lois Young,
"He has said it, it is a strategy."
Jules Vasquez,
You all are not a corporation, you all don't have a fraction of the resources that Mr. Ashcroft has. One thinks that he will take this to the Privy Council. Then what next?
David Vasquez, ACB President
"Well in truth, if he does take this to the Privy Council it would be then for the Privy Council to look at it and say this is a worthwhile case. Its in our belief that they do not have sufficient grounds."
Lois Young,
"I don't think they are going to succeed at the Privy Council but I know what you are getting at. You want to know where are we going to get the deep pockets to match his deep pockets. Well we can't match his deep pockets. What we have is the goodwill of the people of Belize.
In the event that they do appeal to the Privy Council, we will try to raise funds to pay for the necessary solictor's help over in London and I will do the case myself, I will be the barrister because the Privy Council is our court - meaning our highest court of appeal and I will give my services free of cost. My services, I just need to get across to England and sustain myself there for a while. I don't know who would raise the monies for that part of it.Raise the money for the solicitors over in England and we are going to defend it. Don't think, and I am telling them now, don't think that we are going to let this go."
The case goes back to the Supreme Court before Justice Michelle Arana on December third.
