By: Staff Writer
March 5, 2021
Police officers in Dominica attack persons during a protest against the arrest of a popular blogger over a fallen drone.
A citizens video captured police officers manhandling a man in Roseau, Dominica at a protest for the freedom of a popular internet blogger.
Lynworth (Mystelics) Mitchell together with videographer/photographer Jawanza Stuart are now in police custody for allegedly flying a drone in the Morne Daniel area on Wednesday.
Sources told Dominica News Online (DNO) that the men were flying the drone in the area and it fell to the ground.
It is alleged that a Chinese national picked it up on the compound of the Chinese Embassy not far from the home of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and handed the drone to Skerrit’s security officers at his residence in the Morne Daniel area. However, police have denied the claim that the Chinese are involved in this in any way.
Persons have told Caribbean Magazine Plus that they believe the Chinese government is behind the arrests and have urged the government of Dominica to keep the men in jail until it is assessed what exactly the drone picked up over the Chinese embassy.
Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), Inspector John Carbon, stated that Mitchell and Stuart were detained on March 3, 2021, at Morne Daniel near Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s official residence after an incident involving an unmanned aerial vehicle commonly referred to as a drone.
“Sometime about 5:00 p.m. on March 3, 2021, the drone was seen flying over the Prime Minister’s official residence at Morne Daniel. The officers on detail at the said compound attempted to keep track of the drone but eventually lost sight of it completely.”
He continued, “a few minutes after, the drone fell to the ground outside the eastern wall of the Prime Minister’s farm which is right next to his official residence.”