Uproar over arrest of Belizean rights lawyer

BELMOPAN — There is rising protest over the charges of a well-known Belizean human rights lawyer and her husband for alleged drug-related offences.

Lawyer Antoinette Moore, and her radio talk show husband, Michael Flores, who also operates a farm in the Dangriga district of Belize, were arrested and charged with the alleged cultivation of marijuana, an offence they have denied.

Since the arrests coincided with their protests against claimed police brutality, human rights activists at home, in the Caribbean region and also Amnesty International have protested that they had been targeted by law enforcement agencies.

Protests lodged with the administration of Prime Minister Said Musa and the police commissioner include those from the ombudsman of Belize, Amnesty and the Belize Human Rights Commission.

Moore is a long-standing member of the Belize Human Rights Commission with a particular focus on women’s rights and opposition to the death penalty for murder.

The police have claimed that there was no ulterior motive to the charges instituted and that due process had taken place in the matter which would be addressed by the court.

Teacher murdered at school by angry man

PORT-OF-SPAIN — A man who brutally stabbed to death a school teacher with some 30 years of service on Wednesday, was yesterday charged with murder while a six-year-old pupil who witnessed the bloody tragedy was undergoing therapy.

Teacher Evelyn James of the Montgomery Primary School in Bethel, Tobago, was attacked with a knife by the man who stabbed her in the throat in front of the school building, then slashed it twice leaving her body in a pool of blood. He then walked across from the school to the nearby home of a senior police officer and gave himself up.

According to eyewitness reports as published in yesterday’s Express newspaper, the man had gone to the school to challenge a complaint allegedly made by the slain teacher about his having an “inappropriate relationship” with a child of the school who had confided in her.

Apparently enraged over the allegation and without waiting for any explanation, he had walked up to Teacher James and challenged the accusation when suddenly he whipped out his knife and stabbed her in the throat and chest and finally in the back as she tried to flee.

The six-year-old boy who had just arrived at the school and witnessed the knifing to death of the teacher, had to be given immediate counselling and was receiving therapy.