Minister for Carriacou and Petit Martinique Affairs and Attorney General, Elvin Nimrod, could face possible legal action following his public statement that the Grenada government will do all in its powers to keep the Bernard Coard Gang of revolutionary prisoners as inmates at the Richmond Hill prison.

Thirteen of the prisoners are currently facing a re-sentencing hearing at the Trade Centre in connection with the October 1983 murder of former Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and half his cabinet in a bloody palace coup.

Nimrod's statement at a meeting of the ruling New National Party (NNP) in Carriacou was brought to the attention of sitting high court judge, Justice Francis Bell by lead defense QC Edward Fitzgerald of England.

The senior government minister told party supporters that,³we have spent millions of dollars to ensure that we protect this country, but the opposition is fighting to release the people on the hill".

³Let me say when the time comes, if the court decides that they must be released, let us make it clear that Keith Mitchell and his New National Party is standing firm to make sure that we keep them there, because they have committed a crime against our country", he said.

Nimrod warned that the Mitchell government will"do everything necessary and appropriate to keep the men in prison".³As of today, we have employed the best legal minds to fight with the oppositionŠwe are fighting to keep them on the hill, my people ... help us to keep them there", he charged.

Fitzgerald used the AG's statement to further strengthen his claim before Justice Belle as to why the Coard Gang of prisoners  should get a reduced sentence rather than the imposition of a life sentence which he believe leaves the men at the mercy of politicians to decide their faith.

The QC hinted at a possible "contempt of court" as it relates to Nimrod's statement, since as the principal legal advisor to government he is also an Officer of the Court. According to Fitzgerald, politicians think they have the right to decide the faith of the prisoners and it is dangerous in such a highly charged case that was taking place in Grenada.

He added that the statement made by Nimrod proves the point  why the decision of the status of the prisoners has to be a judicial one.

Coard and his followers were convicted in 1986 for the murder of Bishop following a bitter power struggle for control of the marxist-oriented New Jewel Movement (NJM) which seized power by force of arms against the elected Eric Gairy government in 1979 and charted the first revolutionary experiment in the English-speaking Caribbean.