After more than 24 hours of being detained, documents surfaced, revealing that August was formally charged with using a computer system to disseminate a false statement contrary to Belize’s Cybercrime Act. As we have reported, the allegation stems from a satirical Facebook post made Friday following the murder of Dr. Naum Bonilla. Police claim the post was intended to subject Minister Oscar Mira to public ridicule and embarrassment. Peyrefitte, however, says the sequence of events strongly suggests that the detention, processing, and charging of August were carefully planned out from the very beginning, and may have been a case of mounting frustration by the police minister.
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney / Former Police Minister: “They know that the Cayo Magistrate’s court doesn’t usually take on new matters on Mondays, they take on new matters on Tuesdays. So they arrested him on Saturday so they could legally have him for forty-eight hours to Monday then charge him, then have him legally before the magistrate on Tuesday morning so that they would be within their time periods as to when they could have a person detained. But it was a well-planned execution. It was a hit with precision and then to make sure that nothing was left to chance, Cesar Franco who heads up the police department in Cayo was not available out of the country, the commissioner of police was out of the country. So while on behalf of my client, I’m trying to say listen if you want to charge him, charge him, but please it is the weekend. It is Saturday, can we get station bail which is a standard thing for attorneys to ask for people who are charged with non-violent crimes over the weekend. None of those two were available, not answering your phones all of a sudden the CEO will not be involved and of course I could not call Oscar Mira right ? So the Cayo section of the UDP had to go nuclear to secure bail for one of their favorite sons, but it was completely unnecessary to do that in a normal situation unless it is what it exactly was; a hit sent out by the Ministry of Home Affairs to lock up Alberto for the weekend because he hurt the minister’s feelings.”
As it relates to his experience in the holding cell, August says it is not an easy situation as it plays on your mental health. Despite all that, however, the former UDP Chairman says he has no regrets over his post.
Reporter: Do you regret making the post?
Alberto August, Former UDP Chairman: “Not for a day, sir. Not even for a second. Not even for a second and more will be made. If your internal office, the lawyers in the police department could not have seen like what the ordinary person sees that that was just a satirical kind of statement, then something needs to happen because they tell us that you read into law and reading is understanding. So if you had read that and you never understood the meaning of it then I don’t think you deserve that law degree. But if the intention of the minister was to humiliate me and to cause anxiety and stress for my family, he succeeded. He succeeded in doing that because the trauma that my partner went through, my friend, is unbelievable. You know what they say they knocked you off your horse but they took the horse ? I need the horse my friend because I need to continue riding because they have awoken a new part of me and these little things can’t stop me. It would take for bigger things than these to sort of distract me because I’m not easily distracted. So agitating for better living conditions for the people continues to remain my focus and I’m prepared to take whatever licks come my.”
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