The Court of Appeal has thrown out the appeal of four Jamaican fishermen who were held in December 2006 on gun and ammunition charges.

Police had seized eight AK-47 rifles, two revolvers and 75 rounds of ammunition from their boat in St Elizabeth.

Charges

In dismissing their appeal Monday, the court ordered that their 15-year prison sentence each at hard labour must run from August 8, 2007.

Justice Donald McIntosh had found them guilty on May 4 last year of 10 counts of illegal possession of firearm and illegal possession of ammunition.

They are 57-year-old Arden Ebanks of Mitchell Town, Clarendon; Alvin Ashby, 31, Carlington Parchment, 26, and Bryan Parchment, 32, all of Newell, St Elizabeth.

They were arrested and charged following an operation by the St Elizabeth police.

Prosecutors Maxine Jackson and Natalie Ebanks led evidence in the Gun Court that about 3 a.m. on December 19, 2006, the police, acting on intelligence, went to the Great Bay Fishing Beach, St Elizabeth, where they saw the four men in a boat. Three of the men left the boat carrying bags.

Weapons and ammunition

The men took the bags to an unoccupied guest house nearby. The police saw the men taking out two large parcels from the bags and swooped down on them. The parcels contained weapons and ammunition. The police boarded the boat and held the fourth man, Ebanks.

The men had said in their defence that the police were framing them. They said the police went to an area which was some distance from where they were, dug up the guns and then arrested and charged them.

They filed grounds of appeal contending that the judge erred when he failed to free them after hearing their defence.