7 News Belize

Sate of Emergency Prisoners Get Free
posted (October 4, 2018)

When we left you last night, it was with the news that the 64 men detained under the state of emergency were being released after 30 days in jail - held with no charge, other than being gang affiliated. 

Government decided not to extend the state of emergency, and so, last night, with hours to go before midnight, police went to the prison to pick them up. 

7News was at the prison when they were escorted out, and Daniel Ortiz has the story of what happened next:

After a month on lockdown under the emergency measures, these 51 men from Belize City - all of whom police have determined to be a threat to public safety - were removed from the detention area of the Belize Central Prison. Last night was the last night of their 30-day detention by the state.

Various police transport and escort vehicles arrived at the prison compound to escort them out.

And after everyone was on-board, the police drivers left one by one in a convoy. Those reputed gang members waved to the cameras smiling, knowing that they were home-bound.

The press later caught sight of the 51 men at the Queen Street Police Station. Officers of the Gang Suppression Unit watched them closely as they exited the van, ready to react if any sort of altercation broke out.

It had been a very long 30 days of incarceration, but the 51 weren't simply allowed to just leave. They were all escorted into a mediation session, but instead of trying quell gang squabbles, this session was more like a de-briefing.

Most likely, the mediators warned them they could end up right back at Prison under these same emergency measures. Deputy Police Commissioner Chester Williams yesterday said that police will be monitoring them, and if any of them commits an offense under the new anti-gang legislation, they will have difficulty getting bail.

Chester Williams - Deputy Police Commissioner
"The house has recently passed the bill where persons who are charged under the gang related offences or gang membership offences that the magistrate court will not be able to grant bail to those persons, you will have to go to the Supreme Court for bail. So we're hoping that whilst they are charged that they'll be kept incarcerated. But again we still need to be able to monitor the activities of these young men whenever they are released; if they're released and for me I look at it that it is a matter for I look at it that it is a matter for them to decide the lifestyle they want to continue to live. I don't think that we must live in a society where the wishes or the safety of the masses is being compromised by the minority."

It's a controversial decision that the Government and the police have made, and at least from the Deputy Commissioner's perspective, this was the right play.

Chester Williams - Deputy Police Commissioner
"It was not an easy decision but I always believe that the best decisions that you ever make in life are those that are the tougher ones and often times the tough decisions are also unpopular. But eventually you find that once people begin to see the goodness in whatever decision you have made, then people begin to gravitate towards it and they begin to welcome the decision."

Again in our story, we said 51 detainees. That's the number that we got from the Acting CEO of the Prison, but the Gazette records say that 64 men were jailed under the emergency measures.

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