The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

MINISTER of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Fred Mitchell said yesterday while he “loathes” getting into a “he say, she say” situation with a grieving mother, his ministry did “everything it was supposed to do” for Christopher Adderley who died while he was incarcerated in Haiti.

Mr Mitchell was responding to Sharon Rosemary Adderley, who told The Tribune on Sunday she believes her son would still be alive if Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials had “listened to her and done their job” instead of ignoring her pleas for help.

Mr Adderley, a pilot, died in custody in Haiti last September from a heart attack after he was allegedly refused medication in prison. Mr Adderley and another Bahamian were held for two years for questioning in connection with allegedly trafficking illicit drugs, after his plane crashed in bushes off the runway at an airport in Cap-Haitien.

Mrs Adderley said she “begged and pleaded” with officials, including Mr Mitchell, to ensure that her son received the medication he needed while incarcerated in Port-de-Paix for the blood clots in his leg.

Instead, Mrs Adderley claimed that she was allegedly scammed out of “$20,000” by a Haitian lawyer and ignored “time and time again” by ministry officials in Haiti until her son “died a slow, painful death.”

“The ministry (officials) did everything they were supposed to do. We do not run the Haitian prison,” Mr Mitchell said at a press conference at the Department of Immigration.

“I spoke to the officer who is now back in New Providence who was stationed (in Haiti) and dealt with this matter. He assured me that he was in daily contact with members of the family of the individual over a long period of time. He visited the prison and he facilitated trying to get medication.

“The suggestion made that monies passed through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were used to pay bribes is an absolute falsehood. We were asked by the family to pass money on to lawyers,” he said, referring to earlier claims made by Mrs Adderley.

“I am loathed to get involved in a situation where my conduct is being pitted against a mother who is obviously grieving for the loss of her son and I deeply regret that a man died in prison. I understand her loss, it must be horrible as a parent to lose a child but that should not be used as a means to impugn the conduct of the people who work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who I believe worked as best they could to support the two individuals who had been arrested.”

Last week, Mr Mitchell said his ministry is investigating the cause of Mr Adderley’s death.

The other Bahamian man who was incarcerated with Mr Adderley was released from the Haitian prison and is now in the Bahamas.