After the police search of his cell, as part of the investigation into the death of producer Patrick 'Roach'' Samuels, Vybz Kartel has reacted in a handwritten letter intended for the press.
Last Sunday, the police searched Vybz Kartel's cell, where they found two mobile phones and three USB sticks, as well as Zebra's cell. Returning the next day, the inspectors found a DVD player and an mp3 player in the "World Boss"'s cell, and a second DVD player in that of Shawn Storm, co-accused in the murder case.
In the letter, the deejay protests once again against the police's attitude towards him, and proclaims his innocence in Roach's violent death.
We translate his letter below, the original handwritten version of which is reproduced further down:
"Before I get into the real reasons for the police's harassment of me, I must first say that the Jamaican police are the worst police in the world. They say they act on intelligence when it is quite the opposite.
If Roach was killed on Manning Hill Road on Sunday morning, what kind of intelligence could have led the police to the Horizon Remand Center on Sunday at noon? I did not speak to Roach or any of his associates, nor did I have an altercation with him. I was lying in my bed on Sunday at noon when I heard my cell door open. It was the police, who did not give me the reasons for the search they were about to carry out. They asked me to come out of my cell. During the search, a hammer was used to break down part of the wall adjoining Zebra's cell. Two mobile phones were found in that wall, which Zebra immediately acknowledged to be his. A fresh search on Monday allowed the police officers to find a SIM card belonging to Zebra.
During the first search on Sunday, the police and a senior prison administration official asked Shawn Storm and myself whether we were authorised to have DVD and MP3 players. We answered yes, and produced the documents. Our belongings were returned to us immediately. On Monday, the officers came back and told us they were going to examine these items, and that our lawyers should call them. This was reported to us by a woman from the MIT (Major Investigation Task Force, editor's note), while at the same time a policeman called "Brooks" seized a document containing instructions... Instructions addressed to one of my banks authorising my "baby mother" to make a withdrawal of 5,000 pounds sterling, which was then to be given to my lawyer.
GP (General Penitentiary, editor's note), Tamarind Farm, Richmond Farm and Horizon (Horizon Remand Center, editor's note) are institutions where hundreds of remand and convicted inmates have permission to keep gadgets such as DVD and MP3 players, etc., and I am entitled to them like everyone else. This is not the first time the police have told lies about me since I have been here, and as with the last time, when four mobile phones were "found in my cell", I am going to contact INDECOM (the equivalent of the IGS, editor's note). Because I am fed up with the police. Police! Leave me alone! And for once, do some real police work! I don't remember Roach, and I don't remember anybody. A. Palmer.
PS: Everybody in the street knows what happened in this affair between Roach and "them", so those who are using their police friends to compromise me, remember well: Unfair game play twice (a Jamaican expression that could be translated as "every unfair action has its consequences").
