Vybz Kartel Denied Bail, Reports of Witness Intimidation

Controversial dancehall entertainer, Adidja “Vybz Kartel” Palmer was denied bail when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrates Court Tuesday morning to answer to a marijuana possession charge.


Kartel was handed the judgment by Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey, who denied a bail application filed by the deejay’s attorney, Michael Deans. Senior Magistrate Pusey order Kartel to return to court November 10th when the case will be mentioned again.

Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed “Dancehall Hero” is due in court later this Thursday to answer to charges of murder, conspiracy to murder and illegal possession of a firearm in relation to the shooting death of a St. Catherine based businessman/promoter this past July.

According to police investigating the matter, witnesses in Kartel’s murder case have given conflicting statements to the Office of the Public Defender. Police sources have intimated that information gathered in the “Gaza” sections of Waterford, St. Catherine revealed threats and other acts of intimidation; causing witnesses to change their stories in fear of their lives.

Additionally, it’s reported that members of the St. Catherine South police rounded up “all known members of the Gaza gang” after it’s alleged that gunmen staged an attack in the area of the murder’s occurrence during the morning of the investigation parade. "People have been scurrying for their lives, not into hiding but to public legal offices, as a way of getting out of the case,” sources claimed.

The charges slapped on Vybz Kartel were announced on October 3rd; three days after he was arrested at a small New Kingston Hotel where members of the Flying Squad discovered a small quantity of ganja.