Defence attorney in Grenada Anslem Clouden is calling for an independent inquiry into allegations of use of excessive force by police officers in the country.
Clouden, is one of the defence lawyers representing five policemen charged with manslaughter in connection with last week’s death of a visiting Canadian citizen, Oscar Bartholomew.
The attorney says he wants to have a Canadian-Caribbean jurist investigate the allegations of police brutality, not just for the Bartholomew case but also for others in the past where police personnel have been accused of assaulting people in custody.
The Canadian died 24 hours after he was arrested following an incident in which he apparently mistook a female police officer for an old friend.
Post mortems revealed that he died from punctured organs, a fractured skull, bleeding from the head and also suffered multiple injuries to other parts of his body including a broken hand and broken ribs.
The five policemen were denied bail yesterday and are due to re-appear in court on Friday.
(Source http://go-jamaica.com/news/read_article.php?id=34336)
