FLA spotlight on Jah Cure—
| BY BRIAN BONITTO Observer Associate Editor – Auto & Entertainment— | 5 |
JAH Cure is again grabbing the headlines and not for his music. The embattled reggae singer is among 200 people with criminal convictions and questionable character granted a firearm licences between 2014 and 2017.
The revelation was made at Tuesday’s media briefing by Jamaica’s Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) at the AC Hotel by Marriott Kingston in New Kingston.
According to Shane Dalling, FLA’s CEO, the entertainer was among permit holders who had criminal offences.
Dalling, who assumed leadership of the FLA in June 2017, stressed that all these offences took place prior to his ascending to the organization’s helm. He said all the questionable persons were initially denied licenses, but were subsequently approved.
Jah Cure, who is currently being detained in the Netherlands for attempted murder, had been denied a firearm licences on the grounds that he was not “fit and proper”. He had been convicted of rape and illegal firearm in April 1999 and served eight years of a 15-year sentence in prison. He was released in July 2007.
According to Dalling, the reggae singer was denied a licence on June 2015. However, it was subsquently approved 10 weeks later.
It was also revealed that a Kingston don and a Jamaican who was extradited and served time in a US prison were granted four firearm permits each, as part of the 200 cases to which Dalling referred.
Jah Cure’s licenses was eventually revoked.
Established in 2005, the FLA is the statutory body that regulates the legal and lawful use of private firearms in Jamaica in keeping with firearm safe use and handling standards worldwide. The authority streamlines and standardizes the granting, renewal, and revocation of firearm licenses and all the attendant processes relating to the use of firearms in Jamaica.
Jah Cure, whose given name is Siccaturie Alcock, is awaiting his March 8 trial date in the north-western European country. The 43-year-old singer is being detained for allegedly stabbing show promoter Nicardo Blake at Dam Square on October 1, 2021. He has been held at an undisclosed detention center outside of Amsterdam since the incident.
The entertainer is charged with attempted murder, attempted manslaughter, aggravated assault or attempted aggravated assault. He has pleaded self-defence in a previous hearing.
The Netherlands prosecutors are also awaiting results of a digital investigation of the entertainer’s phone as well as information from Jamaican authorities on his prior convictions.
He has had several incidents with promoters in The Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago. However, those were resolved without court action.
Jah Cure has had consistent success since his release from prison. His hit songs include Love Is, Unconditional Love, and All of Me, while he has collaborated with acts such as Damian “Junior Gong” Marley, Torey Lanez, and Mya.
His 2015 album, The Cure, was nominated for a Best Reggae Album Grammy Award the following year.
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