By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN serving time in a Cuban prison for drug possession is urging the Bahamas government to repatriate him.

In a three-page letter to The Tribune dated December 29, 2013, but which has only recently arrived in Nassau, Donald Nehemiah Watson claims that despite signing an agreement five months ago with officials to be repatriated to his home country, representatives of the Bahamas embassy in Cuba have been unable to update him on when he will be transferred.

He claimed he has written numerous letters to Bahamian government officials, adding that in his view, he should be repatriated under an “immigration agreement between the Bahamas and Cuba signed in 2010”.

Mr Watson wrote that on March 12, 2009, he and eight others were drifting in a boat after their engine battery failed in international waters off the Cuban coast.

He claimed a yacht named Dream attended them but did not help and that Cuban authorities considered them to be in distress so came to rescue them.

A search of the boat’s bilge revealed the drugs.

He questioned whether he is being abandoned. “Did Mr Fred Mitchell and Honourable Perry Gladstone Christie receive any of my letters which I gave to the embassy to be forward to them? How can the Bahamas government …. forget about the rest of Bahamians still waiting to be transferred?

“Is it the under the table works of the Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs or the politicks, because the real meaning of politics is mini tricks? Do the embassy and Bahamian government realise that the Cuban Minister of Justice Department is offended and pissed off because of the disrespect and lack of interest from the Bahamian authorities?”

Mr Watson claimed that he has been mistakenly considered a “second time offender” in Cuba. 

He said: “The Cubans had made a mistake of taking me for a second time offender and wanting me to complete 16 years of my 25-year sentence for a quantity of 3.85 grams when I only have to complete 12 and a half here in Cuba according to Cuba’s law as a first time offender. In March 12, 2012 I completed five physical years and in June four physical years waiting for the Bahamas ...”

Speaking to The Tribune about the issue yesterday, Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell said he can’t comment on someone’s status, but added that Mr Watson is misinformed about the issue.