(Jamaica Observer) Tommy Lee Sparta will have to wait until Thursday to find out if he’ll be released from the Freeport Police Station in St James.
The dancehall deejay has been detained since July 7 under the current state of public emergency (SOE) in that parish. Under the SOE, he can be held for 90 days without being charged.
“I expect the tribunal to be very deliberate in its deliberation because he was questioned, as they [the police] said they wanted him for questioning. He was questioned five times and the deputy superintendent [of Police] said: ‘We have no further interest in him and he should be released’; and that was last Friday,” Ernest “Ernie” Smith, the deejay’s attorney, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.
Smith said he had filed an habeas corpus on behalf of his client. A habeas corpus is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention and request that prisoner be brought to court to determine whether or not the detention is lawful.
The attorney-at-law said his client is “distraught” at the way he’s been treated by the lawmen.
Tommy Lee Sparta was asked to report to the Freeport Police Station to answer questions about the upsurge in violence in the Flanker community of St James. He was given a deadline of midday on July 7.
Tommy Lee Sparta’s given name is Leroy Russell. He hails from Flanker in St James, which has been long plagued by crime and violence.
His popular songs include Spartan Soldier, Spartan Angel, Psycho and Rich Badness.
