TWO of the island’s most vocal human rights advocates have described as “uncomfortable” and “enabling” Thursday’s decision by the director of public prosecutions (DPP), Paula Llewellyn, not to prosecute the soldiers implicated in the shooting death of one of five men in Tivoli Gardens two years ago.

Llewellyn had offered no evidence against the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldiers when they appeared in the Home Circuit Court, resulting in Justice Ingrid Mangatal instructing a panel of 12 jurors to return a formal verdict of not guilty.

But yesterday Dr Carolyn Gomes, who heads the rights group Jamaicans For Justice, and Yvonne McCalla-Sobers of Families Against State Terrorism, expressed disappointment at the decision.

McCalla-Sobers expressed fears that the decision will send the wrong message to members of the security forces.

“This is really enabling people to think that they can do what they feel like without impunity,” McCalla-Sobers told the Observer.

Gomes added: “It’s uncomfortable. It’s just like what happened in the Michael Gayle case.” She listed similar cases in which members of the security forces have been released because the prosecutor at the time opted not to press for charges to be laid or offered no evidence at trial.

Gayle, a mentally-challenged man, was killed by a soldier in Olympic Gardens, Kingston in August 1999. In August 2005, then DPP Kent Pantry ruled that no one was criminally responsible for Gayle’s death. The deceased family was later awarded close to $3 million by the government.

In the instant case of the five men — 23-year-old Fitzroy Daley, 18-year-old Conrad Francis, 22-year-old Oneil Palmer, 20-year-old Ronaldo Mitchell and 23-year-old Kwesi Cunningham — being killed in Tivoli Gardens in January 2008, a panel of jurors, after hearing weeks of evidence in the coroner’s court, last month ruled that the soldiers be charged for Palmer’s death.

But on Thursday, Llewellyn told the court that the Crown was not in a position to mount a viable case against the soldiers, based on her review of the depositions and statements in the matter. She said the Crown would not be able to challenge a claim of self-defence.

The coroner’s jury also handed down a verdict that Constable Metro Tulloch, who is now deceased, should be charged with the murder of Mitchell. Llewellyn said had Tulloch been alive, he would have to face a trial.

The jury had ruled that Inspector Linroy Edwards and Constable Neil Gordon should be charged with aiding and abetting murder in relation to Mitchell, but Llewellyn is reported to have said that there was no cogent or credible evidence pointing to any criminal breaches against the two.

The coroner’s jury found that there was justifiable homicide in the case of Cunningham, Daley and Francis.

The lawmen had gone to the West Kingston community in search of wanted men when they were reportedly fired on before returning fire, killing all five men. Five illegal guns were reportedly recovered from the men.