Vybz Kartel’s conviction for the murder of an accomplice more than a decade ago was overturned on Thursday by a London court, which ruled that attempts to bribe the trial jury rendered the conviction unsafe.
The musician, real name Adidja Palmer, is one of Jamaica’s most popular performers.
Kartel has been imprisoned in Jamaica since 2011 for the disappearance of his associate, Clive “Lizard” Williams, whose body has never been discovered.
In 2014, Kartel and three others were found guilty after a 64-day trial in Kingston, one of the longest in Jamaican history. Kartel was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 35 years, which was reduced to 32 and a half years on appeal.
Last month, Kartel and his co-defendants filed their final possible appeal with the Privy Council in London, the final court of appeal in Jamaica and certain other Commonwealth countries. Their lawyers claimed that the trial judge handled allegations incorrectly, such as one juror offering 500,000 Jamaican dollars (about $3,200) to fellow jurors in exchange for not-guilty verdicts.
The defendants’ appeals were granted on Thursday, with Judge David Lloyd-Jones ruling that the trial judge’s decision to keep the juror accused of offering bribes on the panel was “fatal to the safety of the convictions”.
The Privy Council remanded the matter to Jamaica’s Court of Appeal to determine whether Kartel and his co-defendants should face trial again.
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