Amid shouts of joy and applause from members of his family, Jean Rony Jean Charles was released from custody yesterday.

The man at the center of one of the most polarizing immigration cases in recent memory is a free man albeit for now. This after Justice Gregory Hilton ruled that he be released from custody pending the full hearing of governments stay application.

Legal counsel for the government Loren Klein agreed to a compromise on the release of Jean-Charles with the premise that he will not be deported.

On Saturday Jean-Charles was arrested and taken to the Carmichael Road Detention Centre having returned to the country on a court-ordered and state-issued travel document.
Jean-Charles was returning to the country on a Flamingo Air flight from Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, which landed around 3pm.

Upon arrival Jean-Charles was immediately stopped by immigration officers and detained for nearly two hours before he was taken to a bus and driven to the Carmichael Road Detention Centre (CRDC).

On Saturday Attorney General Carl Bethel said Jean-Charles’ homecoming broke an agreement he made with his lawyer Fred Smith to argue a stay of the order before a judge at 3pm on Monday.
However, Mr. Smith emphatically denies making such an agreement and maintains he advised officials he would continue to try to bring his client back at the earliest opportunity.

During yesterday’s proceedings Mr. Klein initially requested reporting requirements. However, Smith vehemently refused the conditions of reporting requirements citing his client is a free man who does not fear due process.

Justice Hilton subsequently said he did not see the need for reporting requirement given the circumstances at hand.

Upon his client’s release The Journal spoke to a jubilant Fred Smith QC who acknowledged the presence of Attorney General Carl Bethel during the proceedings and said it shows that the government is coming around to being civil concerning immigration issues.

“This shows a great level responsibility on the part of the government and I hope they address these situations in that fair way in the future.

“These immigration issues are very sensitive and everything the Human Rights Association promotes is to try to deal with them in a humane matter and respected everybody.

“Doing it with brute force just dehumanizes our entire society; so it’s very important to deal with it as responsibly as the respondents did with it today,” Mr. Smith said.

The Journal also spoke with the man at the center of all of the controversy, flanked by his family a stoic Jean Charles declined to speak at length only stating that he was hungry and glad to be home.

The hearing is set continue at Thursday at 10 am.