Court Orders $300K Payout in Elderly Inmate’s Death  

A breakthrough ruling from the High Court of Belize has found the Belize Central Prison and the Attorney General liable for the wrongful death of Jahangir Abadi, a sixty-eight-year-old inmate who died in custody in 2019. Justice Tawanda Hondora has since ordered the Government of Belize to pay Abadi’s family three hundred thousand dollars in damages. The case, brought by his widow Gilda Abadi and their children, revealed troubling failures in the prison’s medical care system. Mr. Abadi, who was serving a six-year sentence for abetment to murder, suffered from multiple life-threatening conditions, including diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, and depression. Despite repeated warnings from private doctors and pleas from his wife, the prison failed to provide consistent treatment or refer him to the public hospital in time. The court found that prison officials ignored critical medical reports, delayed hospital transfers, and relied on the inmate’s family to supply essential medication. Judge Hondora ruled that these actions breached the prison’s duty of care and directly contributed to Mr. Abadi’s death from sepsis and multi-organ failure. The verdict challenges us to ask more. Should prisons be allowed to operate without adequate medical resources? What safeguards exist to protect the health of inmates? And how can systemic neglect be prevented in the future? The case was settled confidentially in June 2025, but its implications for prison accountability and human rights in Belize remain far-reaching.