Two journalists who covered the recent murder trial of entertainer, Vybz Kartel, have been receiving death threats, their media houses reported Monday. Photo: Caribbean360

The Jamaica Observer newspaper said that its Crime/Court Desk Editor, Karyl Walker, had been receiving several threatening calls on his cellular phone after the paper published the latest article on the case on Sunday involving the entertainer, who was given a life sentence for murder.

Nationwide News Network said it reporter/producer Abka Fitz-Henley had also received death threats after the radio station aired the voice notes that were used by the prosecution in convicting the artiste and three co-accused — Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John — for the muder of Clive “Lizard” Williams.

The voice notes were taken from Vybz Kartel’s phone. They were compiled into a 10-minute-long package with musical interludes and narrated by Fitz-Henley.

Nationwide News Network manager and senior journalist Cliff Hughes confirmed the threat against Fitz-Henley saying he had written to the Commissioner of Police, formally on the issue and asking that he provide “the necessary guidance and protection.

“In two instances last week after we played the voice notes from the trial, Abka got a direct call to his phone telling him to leave Kartel alone, if not all kinda things could happen to him,” Hughes said.

“Last Monday morning, the security guard at our front desk received a call from a man demanding to speak with me. When he heard that I wasn’t there, he told the security guard to tell Abka to leave…Kartel alone,” Hughes said, adding that the caller had indicated they knew where Fitz-Henry lives and would murder him.

The Jamaica Observer reported that the journalists were not the only ones threatened following the trial.

It said that Sergeant Patrick Linton, the former cybercrime boss, who gave technical evidence in the matter, had received threats and there was an attempt to firebomb his house, while the director of public prosecutions and her team who handled the case also received death threats.