Address envelope to Beaumont Gereau #19-1952

If you want to send commissary, please use #5161331

Birthday: August 16, 1950

IN PRISON 52 YEARS

CAPTURED 1972--8 LIFE SENTENCES

The "Virgin Island Five" are a group of activists accused of murdering eight people in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The murders took place during a turbulent period of rebellion on the Islands. The island was put under virtual martial law, and eventually five men: Ismail Ali, Warren (Aziz) Ballantine, Meral (Malik) Smith, Raphael (Kwesi) Joseph, and Hanif Shabazz Bey were apprehended and then charged with the attack. All the men were known supporters of the Virgin Island independence movement.

The five were charged after being subjected to vicious torture in order to extract confessions. They were beaten, hung from their feet and necks from trees, subject to electric shocks with cattle prods, had plastic bags tied over their heads and had water forced up their noses by the "defenders of the law." The judge (Warren Young) overlooking the case worked as Rockefeller's private attorney and even handled legal matters for the Fountain Valley Golf Course prior to being placed on the federal bench.  Eventually, the five went to trial in what became known as the "Fountain Valley" murder trial. This was an obvious Kangaroo Court and a mockery of any sense of a fair trial. On August 13, 1973, each of the five men were convicted and sentenced to eight (8) consecutive life terms.

Today, Warren (Aziz) Ballantine, Meral (Malik) Smith, and Hanif Shabazz Bey are all confined in prison. Ismail Ali was liberated to Cuba via an airplane hijacking in 1984. Raphael (Kwesi) Joseph was granted a pardon by the V.I. governor in 1992. Six years later Kwesi was mysteriously found dead of poison-laced drug overdose, after it was said that he was about to reveal evidence that would have exonerated at least one or more defendants.

Hanif (Beaumont Gereau) was 22 at the time of this arrest. While at Golden Grove prison from 2009-2016, he was involved with the Awaken Mentoring Group that assisted troubled youth to help stop violence. He states, “with no animosity or bitterness, I just would like to be given the chance to give back something to society.” After a half of a century in prison, he has severe health issues including untreated Hepatitis C, commonly contracted in places like prisons, that he was diagnosed with in 2000. The FibroScan test to determine the extent of liver damage was ordered by a physician in 2017, but has yet to be done. Please help reunite Hanif with his family including 3 children and 8 grandchildren, as his wish is, “to give and share with [his grandchildren] things that I was unable to give their parents.”

https://vi3.org/