Hearings into the resentencing of the so-called Grenada 13 were interrupted on Wednesday after a letter was introduced into the proceedings. It challenged the suitability of Barbados-born judge, Francis Belle, to preside over the case, and accused him of belonging to an unnamed "political movement" in Barbados in the early 1980s that did not condemn the coup by Marxist hardliners. Belle did not discuss the letter in court and did not respond to calls for comment about the allegations. Copies of the letter also were distributed to journalists. After consultations between the judge, defence and prosecuting attorneys, the hearings were adjourned to Thursday while the contents of the letter are further considered. In the case, which started on Monday, 13 murder convicts including former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard are having their death sentences reviewed on the orders of the British Privy Council. They were sentenced to death in 1986 for the 1983 killings of then prime minister Maurice Bishop and six other people, but the Privy Council struck down the death sentence in February this year and ordered a resentencing trial. Already in the hearings so far this week there have been a number of submissions for leniency on grounds of illness and spiritual transformation. Reprinted from bbccaribbean.com