ST GEORGE’S, Grenada (AP) – Three men convicted of killings in the 1983 coup in Grenada that triggered a US invasion will be released early from prison for good behaviour, officials said Thursday.

The three former soldiers – Cosmos Richardson, Andy Mitchell and Vincent Joseph – will be freed today after serving 20 years of 30-year sentences, the Ministry of National Security said in a statement.

“Under the law governing sentencing regulations, inmates’ sentences are reduced by one third if they have been deemed as being industrious and well-behaved,” the statement said. “These inmates have qualified for the reduction in their sentences.”

The three – members of the so-called “Grenada 17” – were convicted of manslaughter in the killings of former Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, four Cabinet ministers and six of their supporters on October 19, 1983. The other members of the Grenada 17 were convicted of murder and are serving life sentences.

Defence attorneys for the three men had been seeking their release, arguing they should freed because each received more than one consecutive 15-year sentence for manslaughter, amounting to multiple sentences for the same crime.

In July, the Privy Council, the highest appeals court for most of Britain’s former Caribbean colonies, refused to throw out the men’s sentences and release them from prison.

Two attorneys for the men declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation against the government in the case. A message left for a third defence attorney was not immediately returned.

Grenada became a flash point in the Cold War after Bishop led a bloodless coup in 1979 and installed a socialist government that turned to Cuba for aid. The Cuban Government began building a large airport in Grenada, and the United States feared that it would become a Cuban military outpost capable of sending jets deep into South America.

Six days after the coup that killed Bishop and the 10 others, thousands of US soldiers stormed the island. US President Ronald Reagan said he ordered the invasion to protect 650 US medical students – even though the students radioed that they felt safe – and stem communist influence in America’s back yard.