LLUIDAS VALE: Newman released without charge | detained 20 days under state of emergency

LLUIDAS VALE: Newman released without charge | detained 20 days under state of emergency

December 20, 2018 0 By Horace Mills

A resident of Lluidas Vale in St Catherine who spent 20 days in detention under the ongoing state of public emergency, Kemar Newman, has been released without charge.

The 22-year-old returned home last night, his brothers told The Beacon while expressing relief and jubilation that he is freed at last.

“I was cut up before, but I am happy now; my mind and family is free,” said Omar Newman, who noted that attorney-at-law Ronald McNeil helped to secure the release of his brother.

Another of the young man’s siblings, Oneil Newman, told The Beacon: “I feel good; I had to give my brother a big hug when I saw him; it feels like all my problems are gone now.”

The Newman family previously expressed outrage that law enforcers were detaining Kemar for a protracted period without charge, adding that the youngster was not involved in any criminal activity. Some suspected that he was being held because he is involved in skin bleaching, which is not an offence.

Law enforcers from outside the area picked up Kemar shortly after he returned from work on November 29 and was standing in his yard along the main roadway in Lluidas Vale.

Kemar was among three young men picked up in Lluidas Vale on different occasions under the state of public emergency, and later held at Tamarind Farm detention centre in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

The other two, who are residents of Juan de-Bolas district, were held at a party on the night of Friday, December 7. They were released on Monday after their lawyer made a court appearance on their behalf. The two, 24-year-old Romario Davis and 23-year-old Romaine Cunningham, were released without charge.

ALSO READ: Detained for a friend – Davis recalls state of emergency pickup in Lluidas Vale

The state of public emergency, which gives the security forces power to detain people up to three months without charge, will end 2 January 2019 in the St Catherine North Police Division, which include Lluidas Vale, Linstead and Spanish Town.

The government wanted the state of emergency to be extended for another three months, but the Opposition People’s National Party voted against it, citing mainly the widespread and protracted detention of young men from the lower social class without charge. File photo


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