Prosecutor Slams Belize Police on Human Rights Violations

Defense Attorneys are praising a prosecutor from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for calling out the Belize Police Department on human rights violations. On Sunday, Crown Prosecutor Riis Cattouse wrote to the commissioner explaining that a man named Aaron Willison had gone to the station to make a complaint about an officer who he believed to have been unprofessional during a phone conversation. The officers at the station subsequently detained Willison and left at the end of their shifts without charging him. Cattouse says that, while the department can hold a detainee up to 48 hours, Willison had to wait an undue amount of time before he could be charged and released on bail, given the circumstances. Attorney Richard Dickie Bradley applauded the prosecutor’s initiative and said that hundreds of Belizeans have suffered from the same issue that Cattouse wrote about.

Bradley praised Cattouse for being “bold” and stressed that the move was unprecedented. 

We’ll be following up with the commissioner on this matter.