VETERAN KING OF DANCEHALL VYBZ KARTEL ALIAS ADIDJA PALMER RELEASED
Jamaican dancehall artist Vybz Kartel has been freed from prison after judges decided he should not face a retrial for murder.
The 48-year-old, real name Adidja Palmer, was jailed in 2014 but his conviction was overturned by UK judges in March.
He had been accused of killing of Clive “Lizard” Williams in Jamaica but has always maintained his innocence.
On Wednesday, Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop, one of three judges sitting at Jamaica’s Court of Appeal, said they had weighed up the “egregious nature and seriousness of the offence” against the passage of time, lack of access to witnesses and evidence and the huge expense of a retrial.
She also said Kartel was in “declining health” and a new trial would have an impact on his physical and mental wellbeing.
“We conclude that the interests of justice do not require a new trial,” she said, adding that Kartel and his co-defendants were formally acquitted.
According to the AFP news agency, there was heavy security at the courthouse in Jamaica’s capital, Kingston, and the hearing was closely watched across the country.
