Why was Kartel transferred from Horizon? Security ministry seeks answers

The Ministry of National Security has requested a report from prison authorities outlining their  reasons for transferring incarcerated entertainer Vybz Kartel to the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre in downtown Kingston.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security Dionne McIntosh said that she was informed of Kartel’s transfer by the Department of Correctional Services (DCS).

“I know he was transferred and I’m waiting on the reasons and the report,” McIntosh told THE STAR ONLINE on Wednesday.

The has been speculation that the entertainer, whose given name is Adidja Palmer, was moved because he of suspicion that he is recording music from the high-security Horizon Adult Remand Centre in St Andrew.

Kartel had been at Horizon since 2011 when he was arrested for the murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams. Following his conviction and sentencing in April 2014, he was returned to that facility where he had started serving his life sentence with 35 years before he becomes eligible for parole.

McIntosh declined to comment on this, saying she would await the report from the DCS.

Kartel was convicted by an eleven-member jury in 2014 of killing Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams in Havendale, St Andrew in August 2011.

Since his incarceration, the entertainer has voiced a number of new songs.However, his handlers maintain that they were recorded before he lost his freedom.

IN PHOTO: Prisoner Vybz Kartel makes his way from a police service vehicle in the courtyard of the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court in Half-Way Tree in 2014.