Yearbook 2007
Grenada. According to
CountryAAH, the many legal trips around "Grenada 17"
continued during the year. In February, the country's
highest court of appeal, the Privy Council in London, ruled
that the trials against the 17 had violated the country's
constitution. Therefore, Grenada's highest court was ordered to
redo the trials against the 13 people who were still in
jail.
In 1986, 14 of "Grenada 17" were sentenced to death for
having carried out the coup in 1983 which led to the
assassinations of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and nine
other government officials. The sentence was converted in
1991 to life imprisonment, and a prisoner was later
released. The legal proceedings against the coup makers have
received sharp criticism from, among other things, human
organizations; Amnesty International has defined the 14 as
prisoners of conscience (political prisoners).
When the new trial was held in June, three of the 13 were
released, while ten were sentenced to remain in prison until
2010.
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