Lethbridge abduction case to proceed

The legal case against a Lethbridge woman accused of parental abduction has been given the green light to proceed after Canadian authorities were able to gain the co-operation of authorities in Belize.

Crown prosecutor Tony Bell informed the court Wednesday that officials in Belize, which has no formal treaty with Canada with respect to legal or police matters, have granted a mutual assistance request.

A voir dire hearing to determine which evidence will be presented in any potential trial will be held on Nov. 2, with Judge Jerry LeGrandeur presiding. The complex hearing is expected to last for one full day with various witnesses being questioned by use of closed-circuit television between Belize and Lethbridge.

Calgary defence lawyer William Wister is representing the woman charged in this case, whose name cannot be revealed to protect the identity of the child she is alleged to have kidnapped. The woman has not yet entered a plea to the charges against her.

On Jan. 6, 2014 the accused woman’s ex-husband told police his wife had taken their son and left the country. The following month she was charged with child abduction and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Police tracked the woman and child to Mexico, Guatemala and various parts of Belize, and the mother was the subject of various international Interpol alerts.

In July 2017 Lethbridge police learned Belize authorities found the pair in the town of San Ignacio in the Cayo District and took them into custody.

The mother was jailed and fined for failing to produce valid immigration documents, and the then four-year-old boy was placed in the care of Belize Human Services.

In August 2017 the mother was deported to the U.S., where she was arrested after landing in Houston, Tex., then returned to Canada later that night. She was taken into custody by Lethbridge police at the Calgary International Airport and charged with child abduction, then released from custody Aug. 23 following a bail hearing.