News Briefs

Angela Brown Burke now Bunting's campaign director

Dr Angela Brown Burke is now the campaign director for People's National Party (PNP) presidential contender Peter Bunting.

News of the appointment has coincided with public comments following the leaking of a letter by Brown Burke's husband, Paul Burke, a former PNP general secretary, who said his wife deceived him by deciding to support Bunting.

Burke, who is supporting incumbent Dr Peter Phillips, said, although it's his wife's right to support whoever she chooses, she had consistently said she was not in favour of Bunting.

Brown Burke's St Andrew South West constituency has one of the highest number of delegates in the PNP.

Last Friday, after weeks of being silent, Bunting's camp announced that brown Burke was among 12 people who nominated him to unseat Phillips in the September 7 presidential election.

 

 

Bill coming for prosecutors to appeal criminal cases

A proposed law that will give prosecutors in Jamaica the right of appeal in criminal cases is to be tabled in Parliament before year end, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has disclosed.

According to Chuck, the bill has already been crafted and is now with the Jamaican Bar Association for its input.

“Very shortly, I hope to take a bill to Parliament, hopefully, to look at the rights of appeal of the DPP … before the end of the year, hopefully by September or October”, Chuck told The Gleaner today.

For years, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn has publicly made the case for her office to be given the authority to challenge decisions of the criminal courts.

 

 

Jamaican man on ganja charges in St Vincent denied bail

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC):

A Jamaican man has been remanded after he appeared in the Serious Offences Court in St Vincent and the Grenadines on Monday on charges of possession of 30.85lbs of marijuana with intent to supply.

Novian Travis Vaughn Mullings, 29, is alleged to have had the drugs in a suitcase while attempting to board a flight to Barbados at the Argyle International Airport on the night of Sunday, July 28.

Police have also charged him with possession of the drug for the purpose of drug trafficking and attempting to export marijuana.

When he made his first appearance in court, he said that his relatives were unaware of his presence in Kingstown and asked to contact persons in both Jamaica and Barbados.

Mullings pleaded not guilty to all charges, but the prosecutor objected to bail, arguing that Mullings was a non-national with no significant ties to St Vincent and the Grenadines.

 

 

Religious leaders in Barbados to respond to IACHR position

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Evangelical church leaders are due to meet to formulate an official response to changes being requested by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) regarding the country’s Sexual Offences Act.

Several evangelical church leaders are urging the Mia Mottley government not to make changes to the legislation despite a human rights challenge to those laws filed by trans woman Alexa Hoffmann, and two other Barbadians.

The IACHR, which reviewed the issue in the last year, has given Barbados three months to respond to the challenge.

Former senator Pastor David Durant has told the online publication Barbados TODAY that the religious community is strongly opposed to any change to the law.

He said while sexuality was about choice, the church has a duty to steer persons towards the “right one” suggesting that current anti-gay laws are differentiating markers between right and wrong.