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Michel Hannah Chebat, Jr. (born 23 May 1969) is aBelizean lawyer and politician. He has previously served as chairman ofBelize's Social Security Board as well as president of theBar Association of Belize.[1][2][3] He is a partner in the law firm of Shoman and Chebat together withLisa Shoman.[4]
In 1999, Chebat became an attorney for theSocial Security Board, but resigned from that position in August 2006, ostensibly to protest the dismissal of CEONarda Garcia. At the end of the month, however, Chebat rejoined the SSB, succeeding his law partner Lisa Shoman's fatherYasin Shoman as board chairman.[4] During his chairmanship, Chebat oversaw a feasibility study for the implementation of non-contributory pensions, the rollout of national health insurance,[5] and the creation of a new logo.[6] He was succeeded in February 2008 byLois Young, the ex-wife ofPrime MinisterDean Barrow.[7][8]
Chebat was elected secretary of the Bar Association of Belize in 1999, where he served alongside fellow officers PresidentFred Lumor, Vice-presidentRodwell Williams, and TreasurerEdwin Flowers.[9] He was re-elected to another two-year term in that position in 2001, in a vote that was seen as a referendum on the removal of JusticeGeorge Meerabux from theSupreme Court of Belize.[10] He was later elected president of the Bar Association. In that position, he spoke out against lack of enforcement of environmental laws, as well as the long wait for civil cases to be heard in Belize's overloaded court system.[11][12] In 2011, outgoingchief justice of BelizeSamuel Awich named Chebat andSolicitor-GeneralCheryl Krusen assenior counsels.[13]
Beginning in 2003, Chebat andSimeon Sampson represented two businessman accused of facilitating more than a hundred falseBelizean passport applications, in the biggest passport issuance scandal in Belizean history.[14] His clients removed themselves from Belize multiple times during the course of the proceedings, causing years of delays.[15][16][17] At one point this ledDirector of Public ProsecutionsKirk Anderson to suggest that one of them be triedin absentia, though Supreme Court JusticeAdolph Lucas ruled against this because the suspect in question had not been arraigned.[18][19] Chebat successfully defended one suspect against the charges; the other suspect, who remained absent from Belize, apparently had absconded toLebanon, and was reported dead in a traffic accident there in 2007.[20][21]
In 2006,Ellis Arnold, Chebat, andLutchman Sooknandan represented a shopkeeper accused of manslaughter for shooting and killing an employee who was armed with a machete and high on cocaine, but their argument of self-defense was not sufficient to keep the jury from convicting their client; Chief JusticeAbdulai Conteh sentenced him to seven years' imprisonment.[22][23]
Beginning in 2011, Chebat began represented the Belize Association of Evangelical Churches and the Council of Churches as an interested party inUnited Belize Advocacy Movement and Caleb Orozco v Attorney General, a case concerningLGBT rights in Belize. The case is ongoing, though the United Belize Advocacy Movement has been struck out as an interested party for lack oflocus standi.[24]
Chebat was born inBelize City.[2] He received his B.A. fromFlorida International University, where he studiedinternational relations.[1][2] He went on to theUniversity of the West Indies for hisLL.B. andNorman Manley Law School for hisLegal Education Certificate. He wascalled to the bar in 1997.[1]