Yearbook 2009
Grenada. According to countryaah, the many legal trips around the so-called Grenada 17, during the fall, seemed to have reached the end of the road after 26 years; in September, the last seven prisoners of the 1983 military coup were released. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for abbreviation GD which stands for the nation of Grenada.
In 1986, 14 of Grenada 17 were sentenced to death for carrying out the coup, which among other things led to the murder of then Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and nine other government officials. Other coup makers were sentenced to prison. The death penalty was converted in 1991 to life imprisonment, and a prisoner was later released.
In 2007, the Grenada Supreme Court of Appeal, the Privy Council in London, ruled that the trials against the 17 had violated the country’s constitution. The Supreme Court decided to retake the trials against the 13 people who were still in prison. Six were later released, while seven remained in prison until September 2009. The first trials against the 17 coup makers received sharp criticism from several quarters; among others, the human rights organization Amnesty International defined the 14 as prisoners of conscience (political prisoners).
The coup in 1983 was carried out by a left flank within Prime Minister Bishop’s Socialist Party and it prompted a US-led invasion of the country. The invasion took place on the orders of US President Ronald Reagan.
In July, Justice Minister Jimmy Bristol was forced to resign after admitting to using his position as a government member to help his stepson Emmanuel Ganpot, who was charged in the United States for drug-related crimes. Rohan Phillip took over the post of Grenada Minister of Justice.