Budna Case Heats Up as Pou Pushes Back

On Friday, the attorneys for Police Constable Gabriel Pou fired back at Commissioner of Police Richard Rosado, issuing a sharply worded statement that’s turning up the heat in the Budna investigation. Pou maintains he was pressured into giving a false statement, and now his legal team is blasting the commissioner for what they call a disingenuous appeal for officers to come forward. According to them, Rosado isn’t seeking the truth; they accuse him of suppressing evidence and twisting the narrative instead of allowing an independent investigation to move forward. Back in December, Prime Minister John Briceño revealed that Cabinet was discussing how Belize could bring in an independent investigator for the case. Today, we asked him where that process stands.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“If officer Pou is making is making those allegations, then he needs to go to the DPP. That’s his right. And he has, I think not only I’m more about a legal responsibility to go to the DPP. I think he should stop just hurling these accusations. He either step up or shut up and I don’t know him he tried to meet with me. I was unable to meet with him, but I would rather stay away from these things. Go to DPP. Now, on the issue of setting up something, an independent type of investigation in Belize that is in the hands of the Attorney General, it’s a long process to be able to learn, to ensure that we can do it. That whatever laws we do, that it’s going to be done and that it can be managed properly because we might not do it, the next government might not do it. The third government for, might not use it for political victimization or who knows in the future. You can never tell. We have to ensure that we have the proper safeguards that when this is in place, it can only be done for serious investigations that are needed. Such as the one as you claim with the Budna investigation.”