A hearing was held on Friday for a Lethbridge mother accused of abducting her son and taking him to Central America.
The two were found in Belize where the woman was arrested in July of 2017. Her case has not yet gone to trial.
The names of both the mother and son cannot be published as they are subject to a publication ban.
Three Belizean officials appeared via CCTV on Friday to tell a judge why the 34-year-old woman in question was detained in the first place. Two police officials and one immigration officer informed the court that she was initially charged with a violation of immigration law for not being able to provide legal visitor documentation.
The woman was then ordered to pay a fine and ordered to be removed from the county the following month.
One immigration official told the court the country’s treatment of the woman followed routine legal procedures in Belize for this type of case.
The woman was put on a flight to Calgary but was arrested by U.S officials during a stopover in Houston, Texas and was ultimately taken into custody once she arrived in Calgary.
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Defence lawyer William Wister called for the hearing to take place with Belizean officials on Friday. He said he believes his client was denied fundamental justice by Canadian officials for being deported back to Canada without reason.
The mother also took to the stand on Friday to say she believes she was removed from the country unlawfully.
She also said she wasn’t afforded the right to proper legal counsel while in Belize and was only given a chance to speak to officials at the Canadian consulate.
She said she believes this was done in an effort to extradite her back to Canada, even though the two countries don’t have an extradition treaty.
The woman is believed to have been in Central America with her son for three years.
After hearing from both the accused and the Belizean officials involved with her arrest, the information that was presented will be reviewed and the case will be back in court on Dec. 14.
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