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Attorneys Bianca Samuels and Bert Samuels
As the dispute over the detention of a Jamaican vessel in the US deepens, attorneys representing the four men who were aboard are demanding that they be allowed to return home.
The men are reportedly being held in the custody of US immigration.
The attorneys, Bert Samuels and Bianca Samuels, held a media briefing Monday morning where they provided an update on the matter.
Miss Samuels noted that the men were detained for 73 days from October 11 to December 23, on the alleged basis that US authorities found 150 gallons of liquid cocaine on their vessel.
She said the men were brought before the court in the Southern District of Florida and the judge terminated their detention on the basis that there was no evidence of cocaine but instead it was gasolene that had been misidentified as such.
The attorneys are therefore questioning the continued detention of the men.
"The men are now still in US immigration custody, quintessentially known for detaining individuals for inordinately long periods of time," Miss Samuels lamented.
She said their Jamaican passports were taken from them by the US Coast Guard and have not been returned.
The attorneys want the Foreign Affairs Ministry to intervene so the men may retrieve their passports and return to Jamaica on an international flight.
The ship, with four Jamaicans aboard, was about 120 miles south of Jamaica when the US Coast Guard used the Shiprider Agreement to enter alongside Jamaican security personnel.
The vessel - LadyLawla - was reportedly taken to the US where it was destroyed.
Miss Samuels questioned why the Jamaican authorities gave permission to the US Coast Guard for the vessel belonging to the Jamaicans to be destroyed without due process.
She said the move to destroy the vessel was a violation of the rights of the Jamaicans.
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