The Barrow’s Animal Farm

On Monday, January 18th, 2010, a move by the GOB appropriated Belize Telemedia Limited to summon justices of the Appeal Court to a special one day sitting in Belize out of session has raised eyebrows. In fact, the move has raised serious questions about the Government tampering with the processes of the Judiciary to benefit one entity, in this case BTL. Normally, the Court of Appeals is convened only three times a year – in March, June and October. But that’s in the normal course of things, during the normal administration of justice. Under the Barrow administration, things have certainly changed.

The Justices were flown into the country to hear an appeal by BTL to have an injunction granted by the Chief Justice on December 10th lifted. That injunction prohibits BTL from tampering with Smart’s services to its more than 90,000 customers. The trial is supposed to go before the Chief Justice on February 10th, but it appears that BTL can’t wait, or at least doesn’t want to wait. But wait they will, as the Court of Appeal upheld the injunction.

The case has raised eyebrows because it seems to be a classic case of animal farm, where some animals are more equal than others. BTL has been in the spotlight since it was hijacked by GOB in August of 2009 and the Prime Minister placed his ex-wife and his son on the Board of Directors. BTL has become somewhat of a Barrow family business, so the unprecedented occurrence of a special sitting of the Court of Appeal is largely seen as the Prime Minister giving in to the whim of his ex-wife, Lois Young, who certainly holds a special place in his favour. It remains to be seen if now regular Belizeans and regular organizations will be able to summon the justices of the Court of Appeal whenever they choose and out of session, as GOB and BTL have done.

In addition, taxpayers have taken a brunt of this Barrow love affair, as the justices were flown into and out of the country at government’s expense.

The Belize Times understands that the Barrows/GOB/BTL had attempted to call the special sitting of the Court of Appeal near the end of December, just after the Chief Justice granted Smart an injunction against BTL. The notice given to Smart was exceptionally short, however, and Smart’s lawyers were able to successfully argue against a sitting then.

BTL was represented by attorney Rodwell Williams S.C. of the Prime Minister’s own law firm and the Prime Minister’s daughter, Deanne Barrow, operating out of the PM’s ex-wife’s law firm. So in calculating the winners and the losers, our tally reads something like this – the Big Loser – taxpayers who are footing the entire bill; and the big winners – Lois Young Barrow, Deanne Barrow, Dean Barrow and Rodwell Williams, who have all managed to rake in a hefty share of the public purse through these latest legal shenanigans.

| | | | | |