One of the two Ministers of National Security in Grenada has commented for the first time on the airing of a lecture delivered to inmates at the Richmond Hill prison by condemned prisoner Bernard Coard.

In a statement issued in St. George’s, Major Einstein Louison said he was giving full support to Acting Commissioner of Prisons, Wesley Beggs who is protesting the manner in which Pastor Stanford Simon of the St. George’s Baptist Church in Springs tape-recorded the speech of Coard and played it on a local FM radio station.

Commissioner Beggs sent a letter to Pastor Simon and copied to Minister Louison and the Conference of Churches of Grenada (CCG) on the issue.

According to Major Louison, the letter highlights “a very serious a breach of prison security” on October 25, 2005 when the speech was alleged taped on the compound of the prisons.

In the letter, the Prisons Chief asked the clergyman for a public apology over the taping of the lecture given by Coard who has been an inmate at the prison for the past 22 years.

In the speech, Coard, a former Grenada Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, dealt with the coming on stream soon of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).

Coard and more than ten former government and military officials of the ill-fated 1979-83 Grenada Revolution were convicted in 1985 by a high court for the October 19, 1983 execution of marxist Prime Minister Maurice Bishop at Fort Rupert (George) in a bloody palace coup.

Pastor Simon was told by Beggs in the letter that no permission was given for the taping and broadcasting of this lecture and as such Prison regulations were broken.

According to Major Louison, the country’s laws and its national security must be kept in tact and that breaches like this could not be tolerated. He also pointed out that the confidence and trust which exists between the Prison Commission and Pastor Stanford Simon has been undermined.

Pastor Simon is known to be out of the country on religious business in Africa. In recent times, the ruling New National Party (NNP) government of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell has been attacking some of the public sermons of Pastor Simon.

The outspoken Baptist minister has often preached about the ills in the society and the need for the Church to get directly involved in the political affairs of the nation.