Belmopan, Belize CMC – The Belize government says it is considering appointing a special prosecutor from the Caribbean in the case against a police officer, who appeared in a magistrate court on Tuesday charged with the murders of two people and injury to two others on New Year’s Eve.
Corporal Elmer Nah, who was on interdiction for a previous incident involving the landing of a drug plane on the Southern Highway near Bladen in 2021, is also a suspect in another deadly shooting on December 29.
The 39-year-old police officer has maintained his innocence and following his court appearance was remanded into custody at the Belize Central Prison.
Home Affairs Minister, Kareem Musa, has defended the decision to seek a special prosecutor for the case saying that individual will be chiefly responsible for putting together the argument on behalf of the Crown.
He said also the decision was taken out of an abundance of caution, in order to avoid any controversy that may arise out of the Director of Public Prosecution’s (DPP) relationship with the family of the accused murderer.
“That is a matter when I learnt that Elmer Nah was the prime suspect in this case, immediately I contacted the Prime Minister (John Briceno) to get his blessing because in this case, while it is that the DPP may, on her own, want to recuse herself from this case because of her relationship through marriage, we are taking no chances and in fact, we will be hiring a special prosecutor for this case, of course, in conjunction with the family.
“They must be satisfied as well with the selection to prosecute this case. So you can be rest assured that a special prosecutor will be hired for this case,” Musa said, adding, “We are not limiting it to just Belizean prosecutors, but certainly one from the Caribbean that has similar legislation to ours and laws as ours.
“And so that is the direction that that is looking, either from Belize that the family can agree to or one from the Caribbean, from outside,” Musa added.
Police Commissioner Chester Williams said Nat was arrested in connection with the murders of David and Jon Ramnarace, after he was found with a spotlight on his head, similar to what the shooter was wearing as seen in surveillance footage.
“The shooter has a wealth of experience in firearm. The way he manoeuvred the firearm and manoeuvred himself showed that he is well trained and like you rightly said, he had a specific intent to kill,” he told News 5 television news.
“Even after he had shot the victims outside he went in, came out back, and I don’t want to go too graphic, but what he did when he came outside showed his clear intent to kill,” the Commissioner added.
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