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T R I B U N E 2 4 2 . C O M
Biggest And Best!
Volume: 123 No. 139, Monday, June 15, 2026
THE PEOPLE’S PAPER: PRICE–$1
JUSTICE BUT TOO LATE FOR BRAVE CLAUDIA Govt liable for unlawful detention and rape of Claudia Edwards Bethel By DAVID LEIGH Tribune Editor-in-Chief. daleigh@tribunemedia.net THE highest court of appeal has confirmed the Bahamian government is liable for the unlawful arrest and detention of a young mother who was raped and sexually assaulted by a senior immigration officer while in custody. In dismissing a final appeal by the office of the Attorney General, the Minister and Director of Immigration and the Commissioner of Police, the Privy Council in London
ruled on Thursday that the authorities were ‘vicariously liable’ for the crimes committed against Claudia Edwards Bethel because, having been detained unlawfully, she was in protective custody when they occurred. All that remains is for a ruling on the level of damages payable to her family. Mrs Edwards never got to see her fight for justice vindicated. She died at Princess Margaret Hospital in May 2021, one day after giving birth to her fourth JUSTICE - SEE PAGE THREE Claudia Edwards Bethel
DURAN SAUNDERS
BOY IN SHOOTING ACCIDENT IS SCHOOL’S TOP ACHIEVER
Abaco teen killed in boat driven by twelve-year-old
By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net
By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Chief Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE 12-year-old boy accused of accidentally shooting his eight-year-old brother in the head has graduated as his Bimini school’s Top Achiever, thanking the community for its prayers as his younger
sibling continues recovering in a Miami hospital. Nearly three weeks after the May 23 shooting, eightyear-old Duran Saunders is out of intensive care, moving, undergoing physical therapy and preparing to begin speech therapy, his grandfather Lloyd RECOVER - SEE PAGE SEVEN
KYRON CURRY
A 15-YEAR-OLD Abaco student was killed during a fishing trip near Nunjack Cay on Friday, fuelling calls for stricter enforcement of boating laws after police said a 12-year-old was operating the vessel
despite what a local official described as repeated warnings to his parents about unsafe boating practices. Kyron Curry, a tenthgrade student at Patrick J Bethel High School, died after he fell into waters less than ten miles from Green Turtle Cay while on TEEN - SEE PAGE FIVE
Gardiner petitions New York judge to dismiss criminal complaint against him By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune News Editor rrolle@tribunemedia.net JONATHAN Eric Gardiner, the convicted Bahamian drug trafficker whose rescue from an Election Day plane crash has ignited a political firestorm in The Bahamas, has asked a New York federal
judge to throw out the criminal complaint against him, arguing US authorities detained him for two days before filing charges and failed to indict him within the required 30-day window. The motion is Gardiner’s first major legal counterattack since he was rescued from waters off Florida on
May 12 and later charged in the Southern District of New York with cocaine importation conspiracy, a case that has drawn scrutiny to the Progressive Liberal Party. In a motion filed on June 13, Gardiner’s attorney, Susy Ribero-Ayala, asked LEGAL - SEE PAGE FOUR
Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper
JONATHAN GARDINER