|
|
News |
|
|
|
Opinion |
|
|
|
SKN Observer |
|
|
|
Advertising |
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
| Justice Francis Belle Reassigned to St Lucia |
| By Sheena Brooks |
|
|
 |
| |
After five years of serving as the resident High Court Judge in St. Kitts, His Lordship Justice Francis Belle will be re-assigned to St. Lucia as of September 1, 2010.
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Judicial and Legal Services Commission recently announced that His Lordship, the Hon. Justice Errol Thomas, former resident High Court Judge in Antigua, would replace the Hon. Justice Belle in St. Kitts.
The Barbados-born Justice Belle has been a High Court Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court since 2003 and holds a BA and an LLB from UWI, and a Certificate of Legal Education from Norman Manley Law School, Jamaica. He also holds an MSc in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Justice Belle has worked in the Caribbean as Senior Crown Counsel, Director of Public Prosecutions, before becoming a High Court Judge. He is also a Fellow of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute. Justice Belle officially replaced the Hon. Justice Davidson Baptiste in St. Kitts on September 1, 2005, after serving as the High Court Judge in Grenada.
In 2009 Justice Belle became a household name in the Federation when he presided over the controversial Boundaries Case involving members of opposition parties and the incumbent government. That July, he granted the complainants in the case, People’s Action Movement Leader Lindsay Grant and Deputy Leader Hon. Shawn Richards, an injunction that prevented the government from re-aligning constituency boundaries on the eve of a Federal election. Despite the standing order, Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas went to Parliament, introduced and had passed a draft proclamation containing the proposed boundary changes in both St. Kitts and Nevis, then had the document gazetted.
The government, and other defendants in the case, petitioned for Justice Belle to recuse himself from hearing the substantive matter after he called Prime Minister Douglas a “stranger to the truth”.
Justice Belle stepped down from the landmark case and Justice Rita Joseph-Olivetti resumed the hearing of the matter. She was replaced about one week later by Justice Thomas. He presided over the rest of the case and ruled in October 2009 that the proclamation changing the boundaries was null and void and “of no effect”. The country went to the polls on January 25, 2010 on the existing constituency boundaries.
Justice Thomas, who has been a High Court Judge since 2002, will assume duties in St. Kitts when the September Criminal Assizes begins. |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
