And switching from crime to politics… On Friday, Shyne Barrow gave his extensive thoughts on the 11th Amendment, which would seek to bar persons like him, who had served time in a foreign prison, from running in electoral politics.
He claimed that those who have served prison time - like himself, or national hero Philip Goldson - would both be excluded.
Today we brought those claims to the Prime Minister, who said that - by his interpretation - the law already prohibits those who were jailed in Belize to run for parliament and this amendment is only levelling the playing field.
Reporter
"On Friday, the Leader of the Opposition felt like the 11th Amendment was a direct attack on him and he also felt like it affects marginalized people who have done a stint in jail and want to rehabilitate their lives."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Let's take the second part where he's trying to wrap himself around with poor people. There's nothing poor about the leader of the opposition, and yes he worked hard and he had talent and he did well, but he's not poor. And when he's talking that this is about attacking marginalized people or cutting them off from being a part of the political process, if he were to look closely he would realise that that was already in the law, always in the constitution. What the framers of this amendment are attempting to do is saying well it's not fair if you were to commit a crime in Belize and then you cannot serve in the National Assembly but you could commit a crime outside of Belize and come back and run for the National Assembly, it's not fair. You need to have fairness in the system but probably even more so, Courtney, we are looking at this from the lens of a person, in this instance the leader of the opposition. This is a part of the good governance agenda and the good governance agenda, basically we're saying here if you were found to have committed a corrupt act in the government and found guilty then it means that you cannot run again to serve the people of this country, and to me that is what is most important, that we're strengthening the issue of accountability, transparency, and strengthening our actions we can take against corruption in public life."
Presently, the constitution at section 58 reads "No person shall be qualified to be elected as a member of the House of Representatives who- is under sentence of death imposed on him by a court in any part of the Commonwealth or is serving a sentence of imprisonment (by whatever name called) exceeding twelve months imposed on him by such a court…or is under such a sentence of imprisonment the execution of which has been suspended."
