Reporters have received death threats following the release of a Sunday Observer article which quoted a source in the police high command as saying that Vybz Kartel had given information to the police that led to the recovery of 17 illegal firearms and the apprehension of several wanted men in the Port more, St Catherine area.
The police source said also that Kartel gave up the information in an effort to avoid being charged with the murder of associate Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams.
According to a report by the Observer, Jamaica Observer Crime/Court Desk Editor Karyl Walker and Nationwide News Network reporter/producer Abka Fitz-Henley have been identified as the reporters whose lives have been threatened.
Yesterday, Walker received several threatening calls on his cellular phone making reference to yesterday’s Sunday Observer lead story that carried no by-line.
“P…. hole, a wah dat yu write bout di man a bran him as informa; wi know weh yu live,” the first caller told Walker.
Walker calmly told the caller that the only article he had in the paper was one about problems in Port Royal.
But the caller insisted that it was Walker who wrote the story, saying that he knew his writing style.
In the case of Fitz-Henley, he was threatened shortly after Nationwide aired the voice notes that were used by the prosecution in convicting the artiste and three co-accused — Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John — for Williams’ murder.
In the voice notes, a man, whose voice has been attributed to Vybz Kartel could be heard issuing death threats if Williams did not recover two guns that were stolen while in his care.
The explosive voice notes were taken from Vybz Kartel’s phone. They were compiled into a 10-minute-long package with musical interludes and narrated by Fitz-Henley.
Yesterday, Nationwide boss and senior journalist Cliff Hughes confirmed the threat against Fitz-Henley.
“We have written to the commissioner of police, formally bringing it to his attention and asking him to investigate and provide the necessary guidance and protection,” Hughes told the Observer. The letter to the commissioner was sent off on Friday.
“In two instances last week after we played the voice notes from the trial, Abka got a direct call to his phone telling him to leave Kartel alone, if not all kinda things could happen to him,” Hughes said.
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