dealing with this lawsuit,
LaBeet was being transported
on an American Airline flight
back to the federal peniten-
tiary in Lewisburg, Pa. During
this transport, he came out of
the jet's lavatory with a gun.
He disarmed three Virgin Is-
land ~ Corrections ~Bureau
guards who were escorting
him and diverted the DC-10 to
Havana, Cuba, where he has
remained free.

The other four men remained
in federal custody until 1992,
when Raphael (Kwesi)
Joseph was granted a pardon
by the Virgin Island governor.
Six years later Kwesi was
mysteriously found dead of
poison-laced drug overdose,
after it was said that he was
about to reveal evidence that
would have exonerated at
least one or more defendant.

In 2008, the three remaining
Virgin Island political prison-
ers - Malik Smith, Abdul
Azeez and Haneef Shabazz
Bey - were notified by a team
of attorneys from the islands
that they were putting to-
gether a_ campaign for
clemency. The outgoing gov-
emor made it known that he

would grant clemency to pris-
oners before his departure.
The governor had been a
principal of the high school at-
tended by some of the Virgin
Island prisoners. Sadly, in
January 2007, the Virgin Is-
land prisoners received news
that their clemency request
was rejected. This was the
closest the prisoners came to
ever seeing freedom.

Virgin Island Five

Abdul Azeez, Hanif Bey and Malik Smith

Five Anti-Colonial Activists Sentenced to
Eight Life-Sentences for a Tragic Crime
They Did Not Commit.

"Virgin Island Five" are group
of activists accused of mur-
dering eight people on a golf
course in the U.S. occupied
Virgin Islands. The men who
were accused were part of the
independence movement tak-
ing place throughout the
Caribbean region at that time.

During the early 1970s, a
movement against U.S. colo-
nial rule was spreading
through out occupied regions,
such as Puerto Rico and the
Virgin Islands. As part of this
movement, young men of
these occupied territories
began robbing White tourists,
who they felt represented the
colonial-rule. Despite the
growing epidemic, the media
downplayed this activity, for
fear it would damage the
tourist industry, which the is-
land’s survival depends on.

Then on September 6th,
1972, eight American tourists
were gunned down at the
Rockefeller-owned ~ golf
course on the island of St.
Croix. Over one hundred
Blacks men were brought in
for interrogations, and the
U.S. colonial troops carried
out aseries of repressive acts
of violence against the Black
community. The F.B.1. and the
United States Army troops led
2300-man invasion force into
the islands to conduct house-
to-house searches of the low-
income areas.

Afew days after the incident,
police picked up Meral (Malik)
Smith and Beaumont Gereau
(later known as Haneef
Shabazz Bey.) After eight day
of searching, alocal informant
provided information that lead
tothe arrest of Warren Ballan-

Los Angeles Anarchist Black Cross PO Box 11223 Whittier CA 90603

Los Angeles Anarchist Black Cross PO Box 11223 Whittier CA 90603
tine (Later known as Abdul
Azeez), Ismail Labeet and
Raphael (Kwesi) Joseph

All the men were known sup-
porters of the Virgin Island in-
dependence movement.
However, the police were
quick to dimiss any recogni-
tion of an independence
movement on the Virgin Is-
lands. Police made this dis-
missal despite a steady rise of
independence activity, includ-
ing the development of an in-
dependence political party,
which formed four years prior
to the incident. The public de-
nial was an attempt to relieve
fears that may influence
tourism.

The five were charged with
eight counts of murder. The
charges were filed after the
men were subjected to vicious
torture in order to extract con-
fessions. They were beaten,
hung from their feet and
necks from trees, subjected to
electric shocks with cattle
prods, had plastic bags tied
over their heads and water
forced up their noses by the
“defenders of the law." In the
end, three of the five men
(Labeet, Ballantine and

Gereau) confessed to the
Killings, all while under duress
and the threat of continued
torture. The statements would
eventually be used as evi-
dence in the trial.

Eventually, the five went to
trial in what became known as
the "Fountain Valley" murder
trial. This was an obvious kan-
garoo court and a mockery of
any sense of a fair trial. The
judge (Warren Young) over-
looking the case had a clear
conflict of interest. Prior to
being placed on the federal
bench, he worked as Rocke-
feller's private attorney and
even handled legal matters
for the Fountain Valley Golf
Course. Despite the fact attor-
ney for the Virgin Island 5,
William Kunstler, highlighted
the conflicts of Judge Young,
stating that the judge did not
have the ability to “separate
himself from this island,” the
judge refused to recuse him-
self from the case.

The loyalties of Judge Young
were quickly made apparent,
when the court refused to
throw out the "fake confes-
sions”, even after it was
proven that they were ob-

tained through torture. Even
the Assistant District Attorney
Joel Sacks and several police
officers testified and admitted
that they knew the defendents
had been tortured, and that
the "confessions" extracted
had been obtained by such
methods.

“My agitation for the
independence for the
Virgin Islands was
the only crime | was
guilty of in the eyes
of law enforcement”
- Hanif Bey

During the trial, other aspects
of corruption became appar-
ent. The court refused to ex-
cuse juror member Laura
Torres, who was the former
wife of detective Jorge Torres,
one of the arresting officers.
Nine other jurors testified that
during the deliberations, they
were threatened with FB.1.in-
vestigations and prosecution
of themselves and members
of their families. Four jurors,
including the jury foreman,
signed statements that they
had been forced into a guilty
verdict by the judge, police,
and FB.I. One juror who's

daughter was charged with
bank robbery several years
before, was told that those
charges could be brought up
again if she did not find the
accused guilty.

When the jury deliberated for
nine days, and informed the
judge that they were "hope-
lessly deadlocked", he still re-
fused to dismiss them and call
a mistrial, which worked to
compel a guilty verdict. Even-
tually, on August 13, 1973,
each of the five men were
convicted and sentenced to
eight consecutive life terms.

The men were sent to serve
the rest of their lives in federal
prisons, serving time in both
the Virgin Islands and on the
mainland. LaBeet developed
a reputation of being uncon-
trollable and was sent to
some of the worst peniten-
tiaries in the federal prison
system. During one of his
stays in a federal prison in Vir-
gin Islands, LaBeet spent 90-
days in prison. In response to
this, he filed a lawsuit and
eventually won a $12,000
award from a U.S. District
Court jury in a civil rights suit.
On December 31, 1984, while

Los Angeles Anarchist Black Cross PO Box 11223 Whittier CA 90603

Los Angeles Anarchist Black Cross PO Box 11223 Whittier CA 90603