By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
THE two men, who were arrested by police last week in connection with a song that makes negative comments about Prime Minister Perry Christie and his family, have been released from custody and plan to sue the government, The Tribune has learned.
In an exclusive interview with The Tribune, Navardo Saunders said he was arrested on Thursday afternoon and flown to New Providence from Grand Bahama after officers accused him of “threatening the prime minister” and attempting to “destabilise the government.”
Mr Saunders said after being held for 36 hours and questioned by officers from the Cyber Crimes Unit, he was released without being charged.
He said he believes he was “targeted” and “victimised” because he frequently speaks out against the government on social media for “neglecting Grand Bahama.”
The other man, who also spoke with The Tribune, did not want to be named but confirmed that he was arrested in connection with the song and was also released without being charged. Both men maintain their innocence.
Chief Superintendent Clayton Fernander, officer-in-charge of the Central Detective Unit, said the two men who were in police custody were released on Friday evening “pending further investigations.”
“On Thursday, I got a call from my pastor’s wife who told me that police were looking for me in connection with some threats I allegedly made against the prime minister,” Mr Saunders said. “I was shocked and lost because I knew I did not do anything.
“After that the police in Grand Bahama contacted me and said, ‘Come to the station or we are coming to get you.’ When I went there the officer-in-charge told me they knew I made the song and wrote the song and that it came from my computer because they tracked it to my IP address or something like that,” he said.
“I told them I had no knowledge of what they were talking about and the next thing I knew, they put me in a cell and then on a plane to New Providence to speak with someone from the Central Detective Unit’s Cyber Crimes Division. I slept in a cell at Cable Beach police station that night and they took me to CDU in the morning where they put me in another cell for about two hours until a detective came to interview me.
“The detective kept saying they knew I wrote the song and the police are giving me a chance to confess, but I kept saying that it wasn’t me,” he said. “After a while, the detective said the voice on the song didn’t sound like me but he knew I knew who the guy was. I told him I didn’t but he said he got information from Freeport that I was behind the song. They took my laptop and my cell phone and found nothing.
“So they let me go around 4pm but not before telling me that I need to go find out who was behind the song. They didn’t even pay for me to go back to Freeport, they just let me go and I had to find my own way back.”
Mr Saunders said he believes he was targeted because of the advocacy work that he does in Freeport and he believes this was the government’s way of “sending me a message.
“They called me an enemy of the state. I was targeted and victimised. They didn’t charge me with anything, they just want me to stand down,” he said.
“They knew I had nothing to do with the song, I didn’t even hear it until they played it for me while in custody. They called me an enemy of the state and told me if I lay low nothing like this would have happened. They tried to abuse me and put fear in me, but I am a free man today and I will make sure this does not happen to anyone else,” he said.
Mr Saunders said he is currently looking for a lawyer and plans to sue “and make the government accountable.”
On Friday, Chief Supt Fernander said the matter is under active investigation and “the chips will fall as they may” as the investigations progress.
The Free National Movement and the Democratic National Alliance have both condemned the song.
Comments
proudloudandfnm 7 years, 8 months ago
Sue the police bro. They had no right to detain you. Sue!!
alfalfa 7 years, 8 months ago
Big brother is watching.
asiseeit 7 years, 8 months ago
The last band I heard about getting arrested for a song was the band Pussy Riot in RUSSIA. Is this where we are headed with our government? Does Perry want to be a little Putin? Scary to say the least.
hallmark 7 years, 8 months ago
Seems as if the police played right into these fellas hands and gave them the free publicity they were looking for. I listened to a portion of that song and it is not even worth commenting on.
birdiestrachan 7 years, 8 months ago
I have no idea of what charges can be brought against these men. But I do find it interesting that *Saunders said he has never heard the song. The police are able to hold you for a certain amount of time. It is all right people always reap what they sow. and what goes around comes around. The persons who did the song have a very mean spirit. and they are low.. it will be good to have them exposed for who they really are.
licks2 7 years, 8 months ago
This will not end well for the PLP. . .this is the LEXINGTON SQUAR moment for the Bahamas. . .
FINCASTLE 7 years, 8 months ago
The song was/is hideous and exceedingly gratuitous in its vulgarity. We may have freedom of sSpeech in The Bahamas and so we are free to do these kinds of things but does that mean we ought to? Therein lies the crux of the issue.
ThisIsOurs 7 years, 8 months ago
Enemy of the state??? For a song ???? These uniforms must have magical powers, they make you forget...this sounds like the Pindling victimization era all over again
birdiestrachan 7 years, 8 months ago
I do not know how happy any human being would be if nasty things was said about them. But I guess it is all right when it is the other guy.
Zakary 7 years, 8 months ago
When I went there the officer-in-charge told me they knew I made the song and wrote the song and that it came from my computer because they tracked it to my IP address or something like that,” he said.
Wow, nice bluff. An IP address alone is not enough to identify anyone, multiple people can be behind one IP address.
TalRussell 7 years, 8 months ago
Comrades! if the opposition were not so party infighting committed they would be demanding answers to exactly HOW and who was th government's politician ordering the policeman's to act in this matter to curtail freedom of speech? Like the policeman's acted on their own. Right? Who you goin call when the policeman's are ordered to picks you or a family member up for talking bad about their own political kinds?
SP 7 years, 8 months ago
......................................... PM Christie Legacy Put To Song ........................................
Not exactly what Christie hoped for but unquestionably "it is what it is"!
paul_vincent_zecchino 7 years, 8 months ago
Was wondering when someone would raise the issue of free speech.
Good to know they're out. They never should have been lugged in the first place.
DEDDIE 7 years, 8 months ago
Another $150,000 for Fred Smith.You don't arrest someone without knowing what you are going to charge them with.
RUKiddingMe 7 years, 8 months ago
Keystone Cops being driven by their partisan affiliation to the corrupt and overstepping PLP. They going to try to arrest and charge everybody who calls them out on their ish???!!
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