Man says police met him with groceries in his hand and still charged him for breaching state of emergency regulations

Posted: Wednesday, May 18, 2022. 6:26 pm CST.

By BBN Staff: Twenty-one-year-old Belize City resident Ernest Gentle is another person in a line of Belizeans still fighting court cases over the state of emergency regulation violations, even after those regulations had been lifted.

Gentle was arraigned in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, where he was read a charge of breaching curfew, before the April 1 removal of those regulations.

He pleaded guilty to the charge but explained to Magistrate Baja Shoman that he was only out to get some groceries from a relative and headed home immediately after. Gentle said that when the police met him he showed them the groceries and his social security card, explaining what he was doing out, but they still charged him for an offense.

Magistrate Shoman said that his reason for being out was valid, and exempted him from paying the $500 fine under Section 59-B of the Summary Jurisdiction Procedure Act, Chapter 99 of the Laws of Belize.

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