Vybz Kartel Is Confident He Will Finally Get Justice At The UK Privy Council
Vybz Kartel is confident that he will be out of prison soon as he firmly believes justice will be served, and his murder charge will be overturned by the UK’s Privy Council.
During an interview with Billboard magazine, his first in four years, he expressed confidence that he would be exonerated at the United Kingdom-based court and also expressed contempt for the Jamaican Judicial system.
The Privy Council is the island’s highest court.
“I would like to say re the Privy Council that I am going to be out soon. Law and statute are what the council deals in, not corruption. The appeal hearing in Jamaica, just like the trial, was a joke, a kangaroo court, a circus,” he said in the interview, which was done through Zojak World Wide, the distributor for his latest album, Of Dons & Divas.
Vybz Kartel has been incarcerated since 2011 after he was detained for marijuana possession. Soon after that arrest, he was charged and later convicted of the murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams, along with Shawn “Storm” Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St. John. They were all given life sentences in April 2014.
The singer believes that not only was his original trial unfair but that he cannot get a fair one in Jamaica. His conviction was upheld in April 2020, but the Court of Appeal amended the sentences of all four men by reducing the minimum time they must spend in prison by two years and six months. Kartel will be eligible for parole in 2046.
Kartel has again insinuated that he was targeted and that nobody really cares about ‘Lizard.’ “Since I got arrested, over 11,000 people have been murdered in Jamaica; the general public couldn’t care less because Vybz Kartel or another star’s name isn’t mentioned,” he told Billboard.
He added: “Everyone is concerned with where Lizard is. Kids have been murdered but, whatever, they’re just kids…elderly have been murdered but that’s nothing…they were gonna die anyway. ‘WE WANT JUSTICE FOR LIZARD!!!’ is their cry. F–king idiots. Over 11,000 people and no national outcry. I don’t even blame government as much anymore because as the Jamaican saying goes, ‘if patient don’t care, what doctor must do?’ So, there is no fair trial.”
It’s an opinion that his appeal lawyer, Isat Buchanan, shares. In a statement, he said: “An important question we will put to the Privy Council is whether or not Kartel received a fair trial; the judge was duty-bound to ensure that his constitutional rights were protected, and that was not the case.” he added: “Regardless of the outcome at the Court of Appeal, we are going before the Privy Council because the rules allow it; we should be there by the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021.”
Vybz Kartel’s case will start on Monday, June 29.
Being incarcerated can send anyone off the edge but not Kartel, who believes his stubbornness has given him an edge behind bars.
“I’m a very stubborn person, that’s where I get my strength from. If you’re gonna say Kartel being in prison will end his career, I ‘mma do everything to show you’re an idiot,” Kartel said.
The Worl’ Boss also admitted that even though he puts up a brave face, he’s well aware of how much his family and close relatives have been affected by his incarceration. “Being in prison for the last nine years definitely took a toll on my family, my parents, and especially my kids, early on. It caused me and my woman’s (Shorty) relationship to be destroyed as far as intimate love is concerned, but we’re very cool and have never been in a better place.”