Today Minister Edmond Castro, who had occupied the hot-seat in Court all of Thursday smiled when whistle-blower Alvarene Burgess took the witness stand at ten to be cross-examined by attorney Rodwell Williams in Castro’s case against Burgess and this station. But he wasn’t smiling for long. Despite being grilled for three hours, and despite many suggestions that she was lying, Burgess did not once deviate from her sworn witness statement providing detailed information on how the visa recommendations were transacted. She repeated that at Castro’s request she provide him with two thousand dollars for each visa recommendation. Burgess maintained that, quote – “I handed Mr. Castro money on every occasion that I went to see him at his office,” end quote. As she had done when she went public, Burgess outlined the entire process for the Court, and ended her testimony with, quote – “the words that are coming out of my mouth, that I paid Minister Castro, are the truth.” The defence closed its case at just after four this evening and we spoke to all parties as they exited.
Alvarene Burgess, Whistle-Blower
Alvarene Burgess
“I believe that in life once you tell the truth there’s no going around, under or over it…the truth will always be the truth.”
Reporter
“Ma’am it turns out to be your word against his. Do you believe that you’ve done a good job of explaining clearly what this was?”
Alvarene Burgess
“I believe I did a wonderful job and it’s for the Belizean public to see that we do have a corrupt Government.”
Reporter
“Ma’am have you at any time regretted what you did…going public?”
Alvarene Burgess
“No. Never one minute!”
Anthony Sylvetre
Anthony Sylvestre, Attorney for Alvarene Burgess
“She was an excellent and extremely fantastic witness. I don’t think I have, in my short years of practice, seen a more fantastic witness. Questions were posed to her, she was grilled, and she remained firm as she was when she gave the first interview on the twenty-third of October and the interview on the twelfth of November. Anybody who was in Court can see firsthand how credible she was and even without the receipts her credibility was unshaken and she unquestionably is a witness to be believed over Hon. Edmond Castro.”
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