A high-stakes court appearance in Grenada took an unexpected turn Wednesday, when a Canadian national accused of smuggling hundreds of thousands of Eastern Caribbean dollars worth of cannabis used his time before the judge to highlight a pressing, unsanitary issue in the country’s main correctional facility: a widespread bed bug infestation at His Majesty’s Prison.
Twenty-three-year-old Semand Vivan Shammo Aljndo has remained in pre-trial remand at the facility since March, after courts ruled he posed a significant flight risk ahead of his trial. During his latest scheduled court hearing, Aljndo chose to bypass standard legal procedure and directly raise his complaints about the parasitic infestation to the sitting judge, formally requesting an immediate transfer to a different holding cell away from the bed bug outbreak.
In response to the defendant’s direct appeal, the judge directed Aljndo to coordinate the request through his appointed legal defense counsel, attorney Michael Archibald, to move the transfer request through official administrative channels at the prison. The case of the drug importation charge remains ongoing, with no updates yet on whether Aljndo’s request for a new cell will be approved by prison officials.