The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

DONNA Vasyli is no longer required to wear an ankle monitoring device before her retrial for the murder of her podiatrist husband.

Court officials told this newspaper that Vasyli’s application to have the ankle bracelet removed was approved by Supreme Court Justice Bernard Turner last month.

Additionally, Vasyli is now required to report to the Airport Police Station daily before 6pm. Previously, it was reported that she had to report to the Lyford Cay Police Station.

Vasyli was initially convicted in October 2015 of stabbing her husband Philip Vasyli to death at their Old Fort Bay home  on March 24, 2015.

She was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In July 2017, the Court of Appeal quashed her guilty verdict, and consequently ordered a retrial.

In the Court of Appeal’s 71-page judgment, then-President Justice Dame Anita Allen said she was of the view the jury was possibly left with the impression, as suggested by counsel for the prosecution in its closing address, that the appellant lied about her clothing and the functionality of security cameras to conceal the murder of her husband.

This, she said, resulted in a clear danger that the jury might regard the lies of the appellant as probative of her guilt and warranted the judge to give a Lucas direction on the significance of lies.

Justice Jon Isaacs expressed concern that manslaughter by provocation was not left to the jury as an option while Justice Stella Crane-Scott dissented on the necessity of a retrial entirely given the inconclusive state of the circumstantial evidence.

However, her colleagues believed a retrial was in the interest of justice.

One week later, Vasyli was granted $250,000 bail by Justice Turner.

In November 2017, the appellate court granted Vasyli leave to pursue her fight against a retrial to the London-based Privy Council.

The Court of Appeal ruled that leave would be granted pursuant to the usual provisions, that is on the condition that Vasyli enter a security in the amount of $2,861 to furnish the cost of her application.

Additionally, Vasyli and her legal team were also required to procure the preparation of all related records and have them dispatched to the Privy Council.