Belize’s Sex Offender List to Go Public Under New Proposal

Just weeks after Special Envoy Rossana Briceño called for a national sex offender registry, the government is moving to make that idea a reality. Today, the Briceño administration introduced proposed amendments to the Criminal Code that would turn the existing National Sex Offenders Database into a public registry. Minister of Governance Kareem Musa explained what those changes could mean, and how they’re expected to work.

 

Kareem Musa, Minister of Immigration, Governance and Labor

“By the amendment to section sixty-five a court is now mandated when sentencing a convicted sexual offender to additionally sentence the convict to counseling, medical and psychiatric treatment, furthermore. The amendment to section sixty-five provides that a sexual offender shall not change his residence without prior notification to the commissioner of police and to the director of human development. And shall comply with such other requirement as the commissioner may lay out for the protection of the public. Section sixty-five a, provided that a convicted sexual offender is subjected to sex offender notification requirement, and therefore is required to provide the following information to any police station in the district he resides. His or her names, his or her home address and if that address changes the new address shall be provided within fourteen days of leaving that address.”

 

The data remains on the registry for a period of ten years.

 

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.

 

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