| Bishop Convicts Get New Hearing |
By BBC - Caribbean
June 18, 2007
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| A court in Grenada is hearing arguments in the resentencing of 13 people convicted in the murder of former Grenada Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. |
The resentencing was ordered in February by the London-based Privy Council, Grenada's highest court.
The prisoners, including former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, were convicted of killing Maurice Bishop, four Cabinet members and six supporters, in a 1983 coup. |
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| They were sentenced to death three years later but the verdict was struck down by the Privy Council. |
| Grenada's Attorney General Elvin Nimrod has said the government will do everything in its power to keep the men in prison. |
| He said: "Let me say when the time comes, if the Court decides that they must be release that will be the order from the Court. |
| "However, let me make it clear that Prime Minister Keith Mitchell and his New National Party are standing firm to make sure that we keep them there, because they have committed a crime against our country." |
| The inmates were among 17 whose coup led the United States to invade Grenada. |
| Coard's wife was freed in 2000 to undergo cancer treatment, and three other conspirators not given death sentences, were released early for good behaviour. |
| Presiding over the resentencing will be a Barbados-born judge, Francis Belle, who is based in St. Kitts. |
| More than a dozen lawyers, led by English Queen's counsel Fitzroy Edward, are expected to appear on behalf of the convicts. |
| The authorities have converted a trade centre to accommodate the hundreds of people expected to observe the proceedings. |
| Relatives of people who died during the 1983 coup attempt said they will stage a peaceful demonstration at the start of the hearing. |
| A police spokesman has however cautioned that said loitering would not be permitted outside of the temporary court building. |
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