Attorney Says 13-Year-Old Detained Under S.O.E. is Being Held in “The Hole” at Prison 

Attorney Leslie Mendez says she has been prohibited from speaking with the 13-year-old boy who was arrested under the State of Emergency.

Mendez, who is representing the mother of a 13-year-old boy detained at Wagner’s Youth Facility within the Belize Central Prison, is raising urgent concerns over the conditions of his detention and his access to legal representation.

Mendez has written to the Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa, and the Director of the Kolbe Foundation, Virgillo Murillo.

The boy has not been charged with any offense. Mendez, visiting the prison under the instruction of the boy’s mother, was denied access by prison authorities, who insisted on a court order for such a visit.

In her letter to Musa and Murillo, Mendez says, “Upon reviewing the Belize Constitution, Statutory Instrument No. 94 of 2024 and Statutory Instrument No. 99 of 2024, I found no provision that exempts or conditions a detainee’s right to access legal representation, much less that of a child detainee. In fact, both the Belize Constitution and the Statutory Instrument No. 99 of 2024 explicitly recognise the right of detainees to legal representation.”

According to Mendez, this denial of access is seen as a violation of the child’s rights. “This request is made especially in light of information received regarding (the boy’s) detention conditions, which indicate that he is not merely detained, but is being held in what the prison authorities and inmates refer to as “the hole.”

An individual accused of shooting at the boy several months ago is reportedly held in the same area, raising serious safety issues.

Mendez says the use of preventative detention against a child conflicts with international human rights conventions, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Belize is a signatory. She is asking for an explanation for the legal basis of conditioning the boy’s access to legal counsel on obtaining a court order. She has also asked for confirmation on whether his detention was reviewed by an independent tribunal as required by the Belize Constitution on July 27, 2024.