The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN man being held in a Cuban prison on drug charges is pleading for the families of the Bahamian prisoners in detention there to peacefully protest outside the Cuban Embassy in an effort to get transferred to The Bahamas to serve their sentences.

Omar Chisolm, who has been incarcerated in the maximum security El Combinado del Este Prison in Havana, Cuba, since April 2021 is seeking to be transferred to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services near his family to serve out the rest of his 19-year sentence.

 According to his wife, Anya Chisolm, Mr Chisolm was travelling in international waters off the Cuban coast in possession of a small amount of marijuana when he was arrested by Cuban officials, charged with drug trafficking and illegal entry and sentenced to serve his time in the Cuban prison.

 Mr Chisolm, in a voice note circulating social media, pleaded for his loved ones and the loved ones of others in a similar situation in the prison to help them get repatriated.

 “Talking to most of the people that have families locked up in Cuba, we deserve a second chance. Now we are calling on the family members, the loved ones, the kids, whoever, it’s a joint effort, to just do a peaceful demonstration in the front of the Cuban Embassy,” he said.

 Mr Chisolm said the protest would be “asking for us to be transferred to our homeland to do the duration of our sentences home, requesting answers or requesting some type of clarity as to why there has not been one single person transferred home on a treaty transfer from 2015, or why isn’t it guys who’ve already served their sentence not yet been released?”

 He added: “You have men over here that have lost mothers, fathers due to COVID. Some guys have maintained good conduct over here and at the end of the day, when it’s time for their freedom, they are just being denied for frivolous reasons.

 “We’re not asking them to cloak us, because we did wrong, but the marijuana that we were alleged to have in our possession is being used for medicine throughout the world. Some family members cannot even afford to come to Cuba because the money is so much money,” Mr Chisolm said.

 He claimed: “Cuba right now is changing laws constantly. Cuba says you could do half of your sentence or you can receive four months rebar, but most guys have completed half of their sentence or four months rebar and maintained good discipline but nobody seems to be going home.”

 Mr Chisolm pointed to the prisoner exchange agreement between The Bahamas and Cuba as grounds for him and other Bahamian prisoners with similar situations to be repatriated.

In 1998, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs Janet Bostwick signed the agreement with Cuba, which applies to all offences except capital offences.

 The agreement allows for Bahamians imprisoned in Cuba to apply for a transfer to be able to serve the remainder of their sentence at home.

 Mr Chisolm said: “Now you have Bahamians that are in Cuba suffering on the grounds of being away from their families with these long excessive sentences. We are just asking that the two governments come together and at least find a solution.

 “Adhere to the treaty transfer that both governments have signed an agreement that we could be transferred to our country to do the duration of our sentence. Cubans are constantly receiving benefits, but we all are just constantly being told that we are non-citizens,” Mr Chisolm claimed.

 Mr Chisolm’s wife said she is concerned for her husband’s health, describing the conditions of the prison as “harsh” and “saddening”, prompting her to visit him every six weeks to deliver food, medicine and other supplies.

 “He’s about approaching two years that he’s been incarcerated there. Cuba is of course, you know, is a communist country and the entire time that he’s been there, we’ve gotten very little information from them,” Mrs Chisolm said.

“My husband has applied for the treaty transfer and been denied... So we just don’t understand what is going on,” she said.

“The conditions in Cuba’s prisons are harsh. And they’re not fed a lot, you know very little. The water is different, different from what we’re used to, so for my husband has been there he’s already developed kidney stones. So, of course, I’m in a position where I’m able to go often to make sure that he gets the medication that he needs and the water and the food, but there are others whose families aren’t able to do that. And it’s very hard and it’s very saddening to see how they are,” Mrs Chisolm said.

 Mrs Chisolm said in addition to caring for their five children, the financial burden of having to make a trip to Cuba from Exuma every six weeks is challenging.

 Mr Chisolm is currently out on bail as he awaits trial for similar drug-related charges in The Bahamas in connection with a $3m drug seizure in the Exuma cays in 2020.

 Sometime between September 17 and 21, 2020, Mr Chisolm and two others were accused of conspiring to possess a quantity of Indian hemp.