By Devon Evans, Freelance Writer BROWN'S TOWN, St. Ann:
ALLEGED CANADIAN fugitive Robert Bidwell has denounced Jamaica's justice system, charging that the country has become a police state where people's rights are no longer respected by those in authority.
In a statement issued from his jail cell at the General Penitentiary, Bidwell, who is facing extradition to Canada where he is wanted on drug related charges, said he will not put forward any further challenge to the extradition exercise.
Having heard about the police raid on the offices of his attorneys, he said he no longer feels he will be able to get justice in Jamaica.
Explaining that written instructions to his attorneys have been taken away by the police to be used against him in Canada, Bidwell said he is certain that a similar act could not have taken place in Canada.
Bidwell is arguing that notwithstanding the allegations against him, he was entitled to a fair trial in Jamaica where he has lived over the past sixteen years.
Bidwell has had eight children born to him in Jamaica since 1986.
On January 27, the offices of one of his attorneys-at-law, Ernest Smith, in Brown's Town, St. Ann was raided by the local police, accompanied by members of the Canadian Police Force, and several documents relating to Bidwell as well as other clients were confiscated.
A similar exercise was carried out the following day at Smith's Kingston office, which is run by his daughter, attorney-at-law Nesta-Clair Smith, and also at the office of attorney-at-law, Hugh Thompson, who also represented Bidwell.
Although declaring his innocence to the charges awaiting him in Canada, Bidwell said his concern is not about whether or not he goes to prison but about the future of his children and whether they should remain in Jamaica.
In fact, Bidwell believes that even if he goes to prison, he would like his children to be in Canada. According to him, "they will be better off and their rights guaranteed as citizens".
Bidwell is a Canadian citizen and his children enjoys both Jamaican and Canadian citizenship.
Taking a swipe at the Government, Bidwell says he views with great concern the proposal to give police powers to soldiers, saying it is another step in the making of a police state.
