Man Sentenced To 83 Years For Hijacking Canada-Bound Plane In MoBay Granted Appeal By Privy

Barbara Gayle, Justice Coordinator 

KINGSTON, Jamaica: 
The United Kingdom-based Privy Council has granted Jamaican Stephen Fray permission to appeal his conviction and 83-year prison sentence for high-jacking a Canada-bound plane in 2009. 

Fray was convicted on eight counts for illegal possession of a firearm, shooting with intent, robbery with aggravation, assault at common law and breaches of the Airport Act arising from the attempted hijacking. 

Though sentenced to 83 years, Fray is to serve 20 years because the sentences are to run concurrently. 

He was convicted in the Western Regional Gun Court on October 8, 2009. 

Fray lost an appeal in Jamaica in 2011 to have the sentence and conviction overturned. 

His attorney, Jacqueline Samuels-Brown had argued that her client was mentally ill in April 2009, when he attempted to highjack the Canjet flight at the Sangster International Airport. 

She insisted that the Jamaican courts should have found Fray guilty by reason of insanity. 

The plane, which had more than 160 passengers on board at the time, was scheduled to depart for Cuba, en route to Halifax in Canada. 

In an update on its website, the Privy Council, Jamaica’s highest court of appeal, said it granted Fray permission to appeal on July 16.