On Monday, a lawyer for international icon Vybez Kartel said the Dancehall star’s current health condition is “life-threatening.”
According to his lawyer, Isat Buchanan, the icon has Graves’ disease and heart issues.
Buchanan told Fox5 NY that Kartel, born Adidja Azim Palmer, had been on locked down for 23 hours a day over an alleged cellphone infraction.
“Mr. Palmer’s condition is life-threatening,” Buchanan said gravely.
“His face is actually swole (swollen) and as I said, one a di things is, he always wears glasses because the condition that he has causes his eyes to protrude.”
Vybz Kartel’s private doctor, endocrinologist Karen Phillips, provided a certified medical statement to FOX5NY, stating that he had been battling Graves’ disease for seven years, and despite treatment, he hasn’t gotten any better.
In addition to Graves’ disease, Kartel is suffering from two heart conditions that could kill him if not treated.
“Fighting for his life? Yes. It can be dangerous..we do not want to get a phone call to say because he was under this 24 this 23-hour lockdown and unable to breathe, that he succumbed to his illness,” Buchanan warned.
“He is in a cell, and if you can picture a brick oven because that’s how those cells are built, the ventilation is next to none,” Buchanan argued.
According to the Department of Correctional Services, “23 hour lock downs are normal at these prisons…this is nothing that is abnormal”.
Kartel’s son, Likkle Vybz, also known as Adidja Jaheim Palmer, told Fox5 NY, “It weighs on my heart very heavy, and I think about it a lot but, honestly, we just have to stay strong and just know that he is doing the best he can as he has a strong mindset.”
In 2014, Kartel was given a life sentence for the 2011 murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams.
Eventually, the Jamaica Court Of Appeal reduced his parole serving time to 32 years and six months.
