(Jamaica Gleaner) Bernard Coard, the former deputy prime minister of the short-lived People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) in Grenada, who was imprisoned for 26 years for the murder of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop in 1983, intends to join his wife in Jamaica.

Coard was freed on Saturday after the governor general accepted advice to remit the remainder of his sentence.

The 65-year-old was on his way just before midday on Saturday, along with 13 other prisoners from the Richmond Hill prison, some of whom are former members of the now-defunct People’s Revolutionary Army (PRA), which carried out the assassinations.

“I will be spending as little time as possible here (in Grenada). My wife is not well. Her health is not very good. I will join her in Jamaica as soon as I can secure a passport. I will be based there,” the Caribbean Media Corporation quoted Coard as saying on Saturday.

His wife, Phyllis, has been in Jamaica, since March 2000, where she has been receiving treatment for a severe medical condition.

Both Coard and his wife were part of the ‘Grenada 17’ who were convicted of murdering Bishop and members of his Cabinet in 1983.

The PRG came to power in 1979 after it ousted then Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy in the first successful coup in the English-speaking Caribbean.