As we've been reporting over the past two weeks, the Ashcroft Alliance won a major victory when the Privy Council ruled that the loan note for the Universal debt was valid and enforceable.
The man who signed the loan note, Said Musa said it vindicated him, but it also put taxpayers back on the hook for at least 33.5 million dollars.
And it's put Government in an injurious position. So much so, that the Prime Minister has decided to reverse his government's previous position and now participate in foreign arbitration proceedings.
At Thursday's quarterly press conference, he explained why government needed to re-think its position:..
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize
"Clearly the Privy Council ruling does open the door to an attempt on the part of the Belize Bank and the Ashcroft Alliance to recover the sums under the loan that the Privy Council has now found to be valid. Now that the decision has been handed down I expect that the arbitration panel will reconvene. I believe we will have to rethink our position and I believe that we will be represented at the resumed hearings of the arbitration panel since as I said the Privy Council decision clears the way for the bank and the alliance to argue with renewed vigor that the people of Belize need to repay this money that the past prime minister and the past attorney general, the past leader of the PUP and the current leader of the PUP got us on the hook for. I expect that government will have to seek the services of council abroad so that we might defend to the best of our legal resources - the arbitration effort to have government and people pay this money to the bank and to the alliance."
The arbitration is before the London Court of International Arbitration.
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