Dance­hall star Vy­bz Kar­tel and two of his three co-ac­cused were de­nied bail on Thurs­day af­ter­noon when they ap­peared in the Supreme Court .

Supreme Court Jus­tice An­drea Thomas in deny­ing bail to the ap­pli­cants, said in the ab­sence of a ver­dict or ac­quit­tal by the Privy Coun­cil, the charge of mur­der re­mains in ef­fect.

“In view of the fact that their ap­peal is not yet de­ter­mined they should re­main in cus­tody un­til their ap­peal is con­clud­ed… That is un­til a ver­dict of ac­quit­tal is en­tered or there is a de­ci­sion for a re­tri­al,” Thomas said.

On Wednes­day mem­bers of the pros­e­cu­tion and the de­fence made ar­gu­ments in Kar­tel’s habeas cor­pus case which would have de­ter­mined whether the artiste would giv­en bail.

Lawyers rep­re­sent­ing Kar­tel, whose re­al name is Adid­ja Palmer and two of his three co-ac­cused filed the habeas cor­pus ap­pli­ca­tion seek­ing their re­lease on May 14 be­cause of is­sues the de­fence did not wish to dis­close.

The ap­pli­ca­tion fol­lows the Privy Coun­cil’s March 14 rul­ing that Kar­tel and his co-ac­cused have their con­vic­tions over­turned for the 2011 mur­der of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams.

The Privy Coun­cil had or­dered that the case be re­turned to Ja­maica’s Ap­peal Court to de­cide whether a re­tri­al is nec­es­sary for Kar­tel and his co-ac­cused Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Camp­bell, Kahi­ra Jones, and An­dre St John.

The Privy Coun­cil’s rul­ing fol­lowed an ap­peal made in Feb­ru­ary by lawyers rep­re­sent­ing the then-con­victs, who ar­gued var­i­ous grounds, in­clud­ing the ad­mis­si­bil­i­ty of telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion ev­i­dence, al­le­ga­tions of ju­ry mis­con­duct, and pres­sure on the ju­ry to reach a ver­dict.

In April 2014, Kar­tel was sen­tenced to life in prison with el­i­gi­bil­i­ty for pa­role af­ter serv­ing 35 years of his sen­tence. His co-ac­cused were al­so hand­ed life sen­tences – with Shawn Storm and Jones be­ing el­i­gi­ble for pa­role af­ter serv­ing 25 years, and St John be­ing el­i­gi­ble af­ter serv­ing 15 years.

KINGSTON, Ja­maica, May 30, CMC