Vybz Kartel released from prison

Clad in a white outfit with an orange bandana covering his face, dancehall star Vybz Kartel walked out of the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre in Kingston today as a free man.

The 48-year-old entertainer was freed by the Court of Appeal earlier after spending 13 years in custody. Outside the prison, Vybz Kartel was greeted by adoring fans, his fiancée Sidem Öztürk, and Tommy Thompson, the CEO of Brite Lite Funeral Home.

“Stay out of crime, it nuh worth it. A waste of time and waste of life,” were his first words before departing in a white limousine. Just hours earlier, President of the Court Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop delivered the judgment in the retrial of Vybz Kartel and his three co-accused, ruling against a new trial and acquitting them of the 2011 murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams.