Tommy Lee Sparta among SOE detainees released

WESTERN BUREAU:

Controversial dancehall star Tommy Lee Sparta was among dozens of men who were released from custody on Monday as the island’s states of emergency (SOE) officially ended, paving the way for today’s nomination day exercise.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness had made it clear that a general election would not take place with SOEs in place.

The election will take place on September 3.

Last weekend, National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang indicated that all persons held under the SOEs be charged or released before nomination day.

In St James, where several men aligned to the Flankers-based Uptown Sparta Gang were being held, the parish’s commanding officer, Superintendent Vernon Ellis, confirmed the release of Tommy Lee Sparta, while noting that other alleged gangsters have been slapped with criminal charges.

In Hanover and Westmoreland, which were blanketed under a tri-parish SOE with St James, a number of men with criminal complaints against them were charged and remanded. Some detainees in Westmoreland were released as key forensic evidence needed to charge them was not yet in the hands of the police.

“A number of persons would have been charged over the course of the weekend, and some them we had to release,” Superintendent Robert Gordon, the commanding officer for Westmoreland, told The Gleaner on Monday.

“A number of these detainees would have been charged if DNA testing results had returned in time before the lifting of the SOE, but unfortunately they have not arrived, so by law, we had to release these men.”

Gordon said that the Westmoreland police no longer had any detainees in lock-up who were held under the SOE.

Lambert Johnson, president of the Cornwall Bar Association, who was vocal in demanding that the detainees who were not charged be released without delay, told The Gleaner on Monday that he was reliably informed that the process was going well.

“I am aware of an order given by the Police High Command directing all the commanding officers across the parishes currently under SOEs that by 4 p.m., they are to release all persons being held under the SOEs if they have not been criminally charged,” said Johnson.

Johnson also said that detainees who were picked up in other parishes and held in the west would have to be transported back home at the expense of the State.