It's been almost exactly 6 years Lord Michael Ashcroft and his group of companies have been trying to move Justice of Appeal Samuel Awich as a Court of appeal judge. They were unsuccessful in convincing the Judicial and Legal Services Commission to forward their complaint against Awich to the Belize Advisory Council in 2012. This dispute ended up in the Supreme Court, then the Court of Appeal, and now, the case is before the Caribbean Court of Justice for a final appeal.
The Ashcroft Alliance's complaint against Awich started as far back as July of 2012, when Ashcroft himself, Dean Boyce, and the director of the British Caribbean Bank, wrote a letter to the JLSC.
They said, quote, "We hereby submit to ... the Commission the question of whether Justice Awich should be removed from office for misbehavior and/or inability. We therefore request that the Commission consider(s) and recommend to the Belize Advisory Council... that the question of removal of Justice Awich ought to be investigated. For the avoidance of doubt, we rely on the grounds 'misbehavior' and/or alternatively 'inability'". End quote.
They complained that back when he was a Supreme Court judge, he did not deliver judgements on a timely basis, and that these delays were unreasonably long.
After reviewing their complaint, the Judicial and Legal Services Commission refused to forward it to the Belize Advisory Council for investigation.
In their responding letter, the Commission said, quote, "The Complaint was directed to matters relating to the performance of Justice Awich in his previous position of Justice of the Supreme Court and had no relation to his present office of Justice of Appeal rendering the complaint misconceived and premature with respect to the office of Justice of Appeal; and the decision to appoint a Justice of Appeal resides with the Prime Minister and the Belize Constitution does not countenance the participation of the Commission or the Bar Association in that process." End quote.
Not satisfied with that, the Alliance filed a lawsuit which was heard by Justice Courtney Abel, and in October 2014, the judge ruled that the Judicial and Legal Services Commission ought to have taken the Alliance's complaint more seriously. He ruled that at the very least, the Commission should done a preliminary inquiry before dismissing the complaint against Awich as baseless and misconceived.
Not content with that ruling, the Government and the Judicial and Legal Services Commission appealed to the Court of Appeal and in June of last year, the Appeal Court judges reversed the Supreme Court.
So if you're following, that's 1 win for the Alliance, and 1 for the Government, and so, the Alliance went to the CCJ for a final appeal of the case.
The attorneys flew all the way to the seat of the CCJ, in Port of Spain, Trinidad, where attorney Eamon Courtenay attempted to convince the court that the Supreme Court ruling was the right one, and the Appeal Court decision should be reversed.
But, trying to get a judge removed from office is a very serious matter, and so the panel of judges from the CCJ made sure the challenge Courtenay on all his submissions. Here's an excerpt of the 2 hour hearing, where the judges had a lively back and forth with Courtenay:
Courtenay was assisted by attorney Magali Marin-Young. The Judicial and Legal Services Commission was represented by Leonia Duncan from Attorney General's Ministry. You'll have also noticed that Solicitor General Nigel Hawke was also in Port of Spain for this appeal.
The court has reserved judgment to be delivered at a later date.
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