The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell has hit out at the grieving mother of a Bahamian pilot who died in a Haiti jail, calling her a “little slow” and someone who “does not understand the most basic matters about her son’s care”.

Mr Mitchell said a statement released by Sharon Rosemary Adderley, mother of Christopher Adderley, on Monday is “nonsense” that “continues to parrot a set of falsehoods and untruths” about his “personal role” and the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its handling of Mr Adderley’s incarceration and subsequent death in Haitian custody.

Mr Mitchell said her statement was just “plain silly”, “defamatory”, and he warned that she should “be careful”.

Mr Mitchell also again refuted Mrs Adderley’s claims that the ministry was “complicit” in a scheme to “pay bribes to Haitian officials”. He added that Mrs Adderley’s statements suggest that she instead was complicit in sending bribes to Haitian officials, something he said is “news and now a matter for the police”.

Mr Mitchell was responding to a statement released by Mrs Adderley in which she slammed Mr Mitchell for attacking Tribune columnist Adrian Gibson for the latter’s repeated attempts to bring closure and attention to the circumstances surrounding her son’s death while in Haitian custody. She was responding to statements Mr Mitchell made in the House of Assembly on Monday.

Since Mr Adderley’s death in September 2015, Mr Gibson has published two columns in The Tribune seeking an inquiry from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mrs Adderley, who is a cousin and former school teacher of Mr Gibson, blasted Mr Mitchell for having a “nonchalant” attitude towards her son’s death and for his “failure to provide any information thus far” on the matter.

She called on Mr Mitchell to conduct a “proper investigation” into her son’s death rather than “twisting and mischaracterising this circumstance and my cousin and former student - Mr Gibson’s - noble efforts to assist our family.”

“On the face of it, the response from the mother is nonsense,” Mr Mitchell said in a statement released shortly before midnight on Monday. “She does not even know what she is talking about and didn’t understand what she was hearing on television. I can understand now why she does not understand the most basic of matters about her son’s care. She is a little slow.”

Previously, Mrs Adderley claimed that she, along with another individual, sent more than $20,000 to Haiti to pay for legal fees and “bribes” requested of them by a Haitian official. Those funds were allegedly sent via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

She reiterated the claims in her statement on Monday, stating that the funds, inclusive of “bribes”, were allegedly sent “with the knowledge of officials in Haiti”.

However, Mr Mitchell said in response: “Now we learn from the mother of Mr Adderley that she is complicit in sending bribes to Haitian officials. This is news and now a matter for the police. I guess confession is good for the soul.

“I can assure the public that the (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) was not complicit in any scheme to pay bribes to Haitian officials. That is a figment of her imagination.”

He added: “Her response is just plain silly. It is also defamatory and I warn her to be careful.”

Mr Mitchell also denied being sent an email by Mrs Adderley’s family stating that they are not in support of Mr Gibson.

“The fact is in my statement in the House (of Assembly) I made no reference to her or her conduct or that of her family,” he said. “I read nothing from them. In fact the statement I read came from the Gray family disassociating themselves from the comments of Mr Gibson.”

Mr Mitchell was referring to the family of Hughie Gray, a Bahamian who was also incarcerated with Mr Adderley in Haiti but was released from prison and is now back in the Bahamas.

Mr Adderley, a 34-year-old father of two, died in custody in Haiti last September from a heart attack after he was allegedly refused medication in prison. Mr Adderley and Mr Gray were held for two years for questioning in connection with allegedly trafficking illicit drugs, after the former’s plane crashed in bushes off the runway at an airport in Cap-Haitien.

Mrs Adderley has said that 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”.