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The Tribune Weekend L ATEST NE WS ON TRIBUNE242.COM
Volume: 112 No.185
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2016
PRICE - $1 (Abaco / Grand Bahama $1.50) The Tribune
Roll up for the circus
Inside Weekend
Marco murder verdict quashed Kofhe Goodman to face new trial after Appeal Court ruling By LAMECH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter ljohnson@tribunemedia.net KOFHE Goodman, who was sentenced to death for the murder of 11-year-old Marco Archer, will be retried in the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal yesterday quashed his conviction and sentence. The court ultimately concluded that these issues adverse pre-trial publicity, misconduct of Goodman’s defence lawyer and the
MARCO ARCHER
jury’s irregularity - created “a lurking doubt about the fairness of the trial”. Goodman and his appeal lawyer Wayne Munroe, QC, returned to the appellate court nearly a year after a substantive hearing to convince three judges why they should set aside the conviction and punishment concerning the murder of Archer, of Brougham Street, in 2011. The appellate panel, comprised of Justices Dame Anita Allen, Jon Isaacs and Stella Crane-Scott, were all in agreement that Goodman’s trial lawyer Geoffrey Farquharson’s conduct during the four-month trial was “persistent, deliberate, and gross”. However, appellate President Dame Anita dissented from the opinion of Justices Isaacs and CraneScott that Goodman’s chances at a fair trial had been hampered by adverse coverage which included National Security Minister SEE PAGE THREE
BAHAMASAIR Holdings Ltd yesterday advised the public that persons travelling on tickets purchased outside of its approved sales
channels would be denied travel after officials discovered and thwarted a scam which offered “deeply discounted” airline tickets to clients purchasing flights through a third-party source. The national airline released a statement yester-
Weekend
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Entertainment , page 10
LAWYER IS CHARGED FOR ‘DEFAMING’ TOP POLICE OFFICERS
By LAMECH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter ljohnson@tribunemedia.net A LAWYER found herself in Magistrate’s Court yesterday accused of defaming two of the most senior ranked officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force. Maria Daxon, a former police constable and vocal defender for the rights of police officers, stood before Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes facing two counts of intentional libel concerning alleged statements written about Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade and Assistant Commissioner of Police Leon Bethell. It is alleged that she, between August 26 and August 30, wrote defamatory statements about Commissioner Greenslade and ACP Bethell, which were likely “to injure and expose” the officers to “general hatred, contempt or ridicule”. Daxon elected to have the matter heard in Magistrate’s Court and pleaded not guilty to the allegations. SEE PAGE SEVEN
DISPUTE OVER WHO SHOULD RELEASE REPORT ON CARNIVAL
KOFHE GOODMAN, pictured outside court previously. He is to face a retrial after a ruling yesterday.
ONE ARREST AS BAHAMASAIR WARNS OF TICKETS FRAUD By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net
books cult ure film fash ion podcast Friday, septem s food cha ber 2, 2016 rity relation ships
day alerting the public to the “fraudulent scheme”. The Tribune understands the issue was noticed after a local, illegitimate credit card was flagged after several transactions resulted in travel logs being reserved without payment proce-
dures being completed. According to the airline’s Managing Director Henry Woods, the issue was discovered last week through a fraud detection mechanism layered into the company’s purchasing system. Travellers who purchased
tickets through the faulty source, turning up on the date of travel, encountered reserved seating but incomplete transactions, which ultimately ended with cancelled flight plans. SEE PAGE SIX
By SANCHESKA BROWN Tribune Staff Reporter sbrown@tribunemedia.net NEARLY six weeks after the official Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival economic and revenue report was completed, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe and Bahamas National Festival Commission Chairman Paul Major are at odds over who should release the information to the media. On Sunday, Mr Wilchcombe told The Tribune that the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival (BNFC) has already briefed Prime Minister Perry Christie on the report and said BNFC officials were still putting the SEE PAGE SIX
EMPLOYERS COULD FACE JAIL IF THEY FAIL TO INFORM GOVT OF JOB CUTS By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net
IN THE wake of Sandals’ decision to make hundreds of its employees redundant, the government wants to bring “emergency legislation” to Parliament that would make it a criminal offence for employers to fail
to consult or notify the relevant minister or bargaining agent about their intention to make ten or more workers redundant. This would be “punishable by fine or imprisonment or both”, according to a proposal put forth by the government. The government has also recommended that employ-
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ers consult the minister and bargaining agent at least 60 days prior to the redundancy exercise whenever an employer is proposing to make 10 or more employees redundant. A document obtained by The Tribune, bearing the heading of the Labour Department, contains the recommendations. It is dated
August 31, 2016. According to the document, the government plans to not only force employers to give it and unions substantial notification of redundancy plans and to consult them, but to also remove the cap in the Employment Act which SEE PAGE SIX