Lawyer's appeal to PM

by BARRY ALLEYNE

FRUSTRATED by the slow wheels of justice, a Barbadian attorney-at-law is now pleading with Prime Minister David Thompson to take a personal interest in the welfare of a client who has been imprisoned without trial.

Attorney-at-law Veronica McFarlane has written a personal letter to the Prime Minister in a last-ditch effort to free Cuban national Oslay Rafael Sotero Corbo, who has been in prison here for over a year.

Corbo has been incarcerated since last January, though he has not been sentenced for a crime or been placed on remand by the court system.

His lawyers, McFarlane and Douglas Trotman, made an application to the Supreme Court to earn the man his freedom. That is scheduled to be heard in October.

"The Prime Minister used the media to request that anyone with a genuine incident of human rights infringement should make it known, and the legal process [of Corbo] has been derailed," said McFarlane.

"He [Thompson] has sounded Barbados' commitment to the rule of law and the protection of human rights for illegal immigrants and that is why I'm seeking his assistance," the attorney said.

Cuban Ambassador to Barbados, Pedro Garcia Roque left the island last week for Cuba until next month, but the country's diplomatic attaché in Barbados, Nelson Muniz, told the SUNDAY SUN the Cuban Embassy was aware of Corbo's plight but he was unable to say what position the embassy would be taking on the matter.

The SUNDAY SUN also attempted to reach Attorney General Freundel Stuart for comment, but that proved unsuccessful.

Corbo entered Barbados in 2006 and was given 30 days' stay; he then got a 15-day extension but did not leave the country, thus becoming an illegal immigrant.

After working in a number of odd jobs, he was picked up by Immigration officials last January and detained at the Grantley Adams International Airport for two months, awaiting deportation.

The problem for Corbo is that Cuban nationals who leave the country for more than 11 months are not allowed back in unless they have a return ticket or are in transit to another destination.

So, Corbo was instead transferred to Her Majesty's Prisons at Dodds, where he has been an inmate ever since.

The attorney said she's calling on Thompson to stand by the reassurance he had given regarding human rights protection for persons in Barbados.

"I am appealing to you for the release of Mr Corbo and any other persons held at Dodds without trial," McFarlane told the SUNDAY SUN.

"I recognise the Government is in a difficult position because Mr Sorbo can't go home, but that doesn't mean he should spend the rest of his life in prison. Something has to be done to earn this man his freedom," McFarlane said.