‘Like a death sentence’ - Families of SOE detainees heartbroken at delayed ruling
Published:Thursday | July 30, 2020 | 12:21 AMDanae Hyman/Staff Reporter
A look of despair flushed Everton Douglas’ face following the declaration by Justice Bertram Morrison of a delay to the judgment on whether Douglas and four others who have been detained under states of emergency (SOE) for extensive periods would be released or further remanded.
Similarly, Gavin Noble, who has been locked up the longest, shook his head dejectedly at the decision, but his mask hid his reaction.
On Tuesday, Morrison had said that in an effort to wrap up the hearing before the court term ends on Friday, he would seek to provide the judgment on Wednesday.
He changed tack yesterday, noting that he needed time to pore over the voluminous evidence. That ruling will be delivered on August 25.
“That’s too long! That’s too long! That’s basically the week before SOE is to end,” Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) senior legal adviser John Clarke bellowed before the judge asked him if he had forgotten the rules.
The five men -Nicholas Heat, Courtney Hall, Courtney Thompson, Noble, and Douglas – are being held under SOEs in Kingston Eastern, St Andrew South, Westmoreland, and Clarendon. They have been in custody for up to 15 months.
DISTRESSING NEWS
Noble’s partner and the mother of one of his children who was in attendance on Wednesday said that she came with high expectations that he would finally be freed. News of the delayed judgment was distressing.
“It’s like he is on death sentence,” his partner, who requested that her name not be published, told The Gleaner.
His partner insists that the detention of Noble for one year and three months has been injustice.
“I am heartbroken, stressed, depressed. I am expecting to be coming home because from my understanding I said ok, I’m coming for results today, but, unfortunately, I didn’t get what I want. He’s a father of three. Right now my son doesn’t even know him because there’s no father around. I cannot see a reason to say why they have him for so long. I cannot see the sense in it,
“From the tribunal, they came up with a situation from 2017 and ended in January of 2018 in which that case was thrown away in the Gun Court in Montego Bay.
“I can’t understand why as a human being you’re going to have somebody locked up for so long and then you’re going to bring up things from way back then that have been thrown out,” she said.
On Tuesday, former Police Constable David Binns, while being cross-examined, disclosed that he gave a statement to the Emergency Powers Review Tribunal of reasons why Noble should not be released.
However, Clarke said that one of the cases cited was thrown out by the court in 2018.
On their way back to Westmoreland on Wednesday evening, the parents of Hall, who has also been detained for more than a year, said that they felt as if they had wasted their time journeying to Kingston in the hope of seeing their son released.
“Me nuh feel good bout it, and me nuh think me a go come back a them place ‘cause we can’t go in anyways. It a affect the whole family,” Halls’ father said.
Morrison last week ordered that the men be brought before the courts on Monday so that a ruling could be made on whether they were being held lawfully.