Jamaican dancehall artiste Adidja Azim Palmer, widely known as Vybz Kartel, reportedly faces a serious health crisis while in prison.
According to his lawyer, the musician is battling a life-threatening autoimmune disease called Graves’ Disease and two heart conditions.
The lawyer expressed concern about Vybz Kartel’s deteriorating physical condition, which he attributed to being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for an alleged offence involving a mobile phone.
Describing the artiste’s condition, the lawyer told Fox News:
“His neck was swollen to the point where you couldn’t even close the collar of a shirt with an 18.5-inch neck. That’s the severity of his condition right now. His face is also visibly swollen. Also, he normally wears glasses, but in his current condition, his eyes are protruding.
Vybz is serving a life sentence for the murder of a colleague, following his arrest in Kingston 11 years ago, Vybz Kartel has spent over a decade behind bars.
The dancehall artiste faced two murder charges in the months following his arrest. While he was acquitted of the murder of Barrington ‘Bossie’ Burton, he was found guilty of the murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams in 2014.
Vybz Kartel’s prison sentence includes a provision that he will be eligible for parole after serving at least 35 years.
In October 2022, Vybz reportedly hired a Turkish social worker, Sidem Öztürk.
Öztürk said she and Kartel became engaged during an authorised prison visit in the summer of 2022.
The two had been talking for seven years.
“He’s smart, I love his heart, he’s got an amazing heart and it’s so giving, it’s so loving, I like to call him my angel” – Sidem Öztürk.
A curious fan asked, “Did he actually propose to you, did he have a song to propose to you, can you share some of that with us?”
Sidem explained, “It happened like this, we were just calling each other hubby and wifey and he was like, ‘Well, we’re heading towards marriage, so calling you wifey or you calling me hubby is not serious enough,’ so he was like, ‘You’re my fiancé, we’re going to get married.”