Musician Vybz Kartel gets engaged in prison

Incarcerated Jamaican dancehall musician Vybz Kartel got engaged to his partner during this year’s summer. In an interview with FOX 5 New York, Sidem Ozturk said she said yes to the incarcerated musician during an authorized prison visit.

And when she was asked how the She Holding On singer popped the question, Ozturk said: “How it happened was. we were just calling each other ‘hubby’ and ‘wifey” and he was like, ‘We’re heading toward marriage so you calling me hubby, or me calling you wifey is not serious enough. So you’re my fiancée, we’re going to get married’,” she said.

Ozturk, who worked as a social worker in London, left her job to get closer to her incarcerated partner. “He’s smart. I love his heart. He has an amazing heart. It’s just so giving, so loving. I like to call him my angel. He’s an angel in my life. I can’t deny how happy he makes me feel.”

She added: “To be here, in Jamaica, engaged to Addi, it’s a dream come true. I still haven’t processed it in my head, it’s amazing. I don’t know how to describe it, that’s how good it feels.”

Ozturk went to Jamaica to meet Kartel in 2019 after they started corresponding about four years earlier. And though she admitted that her partner’s incarceration “does cause some difficulties”,  she said she’s willing to wait.

“I can’t see him when I want to see him, can’t talk to him every time I want to talk to him. But when you know where your heart is at, it’s not that difficult, so I’m willing to wait,” she said, adding that her fiancé’s charisma makes up for they not being able to physically touch each other.

“Well, there’s glass between us so we don’t get to touch each other. We just look and talk through some little holes that are in the wood beneath the glass, so it’s not perfect, but we’re making the most of what we can. Oh the man I love, he’s so witty, even when you’re angry or you’re upset about something, he knows how to turn that around, and he can just make you laugh, and make you see the brighter side of things,” she said.

As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Azim Palmer, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 after he was found guilty for his involvement in the murder of his former associate Clive “Lizard” Williams. The “Worl’ Boss”, as he’s popularly known, has been locked up since his 2011 arrest in connection with the highly publicized murder.

In an interview with FOX 5 New York last year, Kartel claimed that his incarceration was an effort to get rid of him because of his influence – not for murder. “It was never about me charged for murder, it was about getting rid of Vybz Kartel, not Adidja Palmer, the person,” the dancehall star said.

“They told us, they say we have too much influence. If you remember when Mavado and I had that little feud a few years ago, we went to King’s House, which is like the home of the prime minister, and they told us we are leading the kids astray and if we don’t stop what we are doing, we are not going to get permission to do shows. It has always been about the influence we have,” he added.

Kartel’s interview came in the wake of a fresh appeal his attorney Isat Buchanan filed at the Privy Council in the United Kingdom based on new evidence, Loop Jamaica reported. And per the appeal, the incarcerated musician and his attorney are claiming a British digital expert has been able to establish the convicted murderer’s phone was tampered with after it was confiscated by authorities following his arrest. He told Fox 5 New York that he’s hopeful the appeal will be successful. The Privy Council is an advisory body to the British Monarch.

Elsewhere in the interview, Kartel spoke about what his life has been like during his decade-long incarceration. Despite being locked up, the dancehall star said he’s in a better place mentally than physically.

“I was sick for a few years, so definitely I’m recovering physically, but mentally I’ve always been in a good place because I know I’m innocent and I know I’m coming out,” he said.