Enriquez Demands Answers Over Justice Hondora’s Removal

Belize’s redistricting case has a new judge, but the unexplained switch is raising concerns about openness. Justice Tawanda Hondora was replaced while an application accusing him of bias remained undecided. Activist Jeremy Enriquez now wants the Chief Justice to explain the reassignment and say whether his bias application will still be heard. His wider case argues that severe population differences among constituencies weaken equal voting power. The allegations come from Enriquez, and neither Hondora nor the judiciary has publicly responded.

 

Jeremy Enriquez, Social Activist

“The Judicial and Legal Services Commission did not fully deal with our matter, and so we took it to the High Court and they ruled that the Judicial and Legal Services Commission was wrong. And so, we did not trust to have that same judge on our case, and we asked that he be removed from our case.There was a lot of back and forth regarding that, and in fact, our court of appeal wanted us to go back to that judge and ask him to be removed. We decided to take it to the Caribbean Court of Justice, and they ruled that indeed that judge’s action was excessive. So he has been removed. But the manner in which he was removed was also disturbing.  it did not involve a hearing from us. It was just  secretively being removed. He was secretly removed or clandestinely removed and replaced  with another judge. So that is how it was done I have a feeling that the court was avoiding the scrutiny and the public scrutiny regarding our case against that judge for his removal from our case. I firmly believe it could have been handled differently. We needed clear disclosure for the court and the people of Belize to see and to examine for themselves the misconduct of that judge, how it compromised a very important case that is a foundation for our democracy.”

 

Enriquez says several legal battles related to the case are still before the courts, but he views the judge’s reassignment as a victory for Belizeans.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: