Attorney-at-law Bert Samuels, who is representing dancehall mega star, Popcaan, is demanding that the police withdraw a statement claiming that his client was arrested in Barbados for cocaine in 2011 and offer an apology or face a libel suit.
The senior attorney said that the police have until midday Thursday to do so or he would be filing the claim.
Samuels said that the police made a statement about a matter that happened 11 years ago without giving information on one of the four possible outcomes for someone allegedly found to be in possession of cocaine.
“It is a falsehood, and we are going to file a libel claim by midday today. We have done a letter to the JCF, which is to withdraw and apologise by noon, failing which we will file it,” Samuels told Loop News on Thursday.
In further denying the police’s claim, Samuel told Loop News that had Popcaan been arrested for cocaine in Barbados, it would have been widely publicised due to the name value of his client.
Recently, Popcaan’s management questioned whether the State has placed a “Stop Order” on the artiste after he was detained in the United Kingdom, which they say has happened more than once when he entered the country.
Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith said the Government of Jamaica had not requested that Popcaan be detained, “but there are many reasons why a traveller may be detained”.
“I have asked the High Commission to enquiry into the matter as early as they are able, so that they may advise,” the Government Minister tweeted on Wednesday morning.
The police, in response, released a statement Wednesday afternoon claiming that they can confirm that Popcaan – whose birth name is Andre Sutherland – was convicted of possession of marijuana in Barbados in 2009 and in 2011 he was arrested for cocaine.
In the meantime, Information Minister Robert Nesta Morgan said that the Prime Minister has been briefed on the matter involving the artiste.
“He has spoken to the Minister of National Security and the Commissioner of Police to review his situation with a view to help facilitate his ease of travel as an entertainer,” Morgan said in a tweet, also on Wednesday.
