Confusing Accounts Regarding Imprisoned Jamaican In Qatar.…

In yet anoth­er response to the con­fus­ing saga regard­ing the incar­cer­a­tion of a 40 year-old Jamaican pilot jailed in Qatar, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a state­ment say­ing that Paul Stephens is still in prison.
This more sober response came only a day after Minister with Portfolio for Foreign Affairs AJ Nicholson gave what appeared to be an ine­bri­at­ed and dis­re­spect­ful response to the Media Interest in Stephens incar­cer­a­tion quote:
“Who is this man by the way, Is he king, Who is he, What is all this inter­est about?” “I am say­ing noth­ing fur­ther about this man or about this case”.!!
SEE STORY HERE: Jamaica’s Minister Of Foreign Affairs Regarding A Jamaican Citizen: “Who Is This Man By The Way, Is He King, Who Is He, What Is All This Interest About?” “I Am Saying Nothing Further About This Man Or About This Case.”!!!
Social media back­lash against Nicholson’s cave­man’s response was swift and bru­tal, no doubt prompt­ing a more respect­ful yet mun­dane response from the Ministry.

“Whenever Jamaican nation­als are arrest­ed and/​or held in cus­tody over­seas, the pol­i­cy of the Government of Jamaica is to allow the legal process­es to run their due course. It is not the pol­i­cy of the min­istry to inter­vene in the judi­cial process­es of oth­er coun­tries or to pub­licly impugn the integri­ty of these process­es with­out author­i­ta­tive jus­ti­fi­ca­tion,” the min­istry said.
In oth­er words the Ministry is doing noth­ing toward secur­ing the release of this Jamaican nation­al inno­cent or not.
This state­ment though rea­son­able sound­ing, masks a seri­ous flaw in the way the Jamaican Government sees it’s cit­i­zens. Though dif­fer­ent than Nicholson’s out­landish response a day ear­li­er, both respons­es shows a fun­da­men­tal lack of respect for their own citizens.

It is remark­able that the Ministry would release this response regard­ing a cit­i­zen of our Country par­tic­u­lar­ly against the back-drop of crim­i­nal Justice sys­tems in places like Qatar where their con­cept of the rule of law dif­fers sig­nif­i­cant­ly from ours and the rest of the civ­i­lized world.
If Mister Stephens is guilty of molest­ing a minor-child he deserves what­ev­er jus­tice that juris­dic­tion met­ed out. Conversely , we must ask our­selves whether we are com­fort­able with the notion of one of our coun­try­men being held in a Qatari prison for a crime he poten­tial­ly did not com­mit, yet receiv­ing no help from his own Government?

As in many cas­es where crimes are alleged, sup­port­ers line up on both sides. Nevertheless we can ill-afford to allow the bar­bar­i­ty of crim­i­nals to cre­ate a sense of apa­thy with­in us which numbs us to Injustice and robs us of our humanity.
That is why it is impor­tant that our Government do all it can to assist our Nationals when­ev­er they are incar­cer­at­ed abroad . It Is impor­tant that we allow the sys­tem of Justice to take it’s course in Sovereign Nations. But we must nev­er lose sight of the fact that in many places some are more equal than others.
That includes our very own pre­cious Island Home>

Lost in this con­fu­sion is the announce­ment from Shadow Minister on Foreign Affairs Edmund Bartlett that mis­ter Stephens was released from Prison accord­ing to his Qatari sources in the United States.
If indeed Mister Stephens is still in Prison, Mister Bartlett may want to recon­sid­er his sources as well as the degree with which he makes announce­ments with­out prop­er verification.