Lawyers representing dancehall superstar Buju Banton have vowed to continue fighting despite a United States Appeal Court ruling yesterday confirming his lengthy prison sentence.

The appeal court left open the possibility that Buju, Mark Myrie, could be granted a new trial but it also raised the prospect of his prison sentence being extended by a further five years.

"I'm sick to my stomach over this opinion. I truly believe that a good man is in jail for talking a big game," attorney-at-law David Oscar Markus, who has represented Buju since he was arrested in Miami in December 2009, told The Weekend Star.

"I will continue to fight for him."

appeal

Markus noted that while the appeal court has sent the matter back to the lower court to decide if Buju should be retried, it has agreed with the prosecution that he should have been given prison time for the presence of a firearm during the drug deal.

Just under a year ago Buju was found guilty of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offence, and using a telephone to facilitate a drug trafficking offence.

sentence

The conviction carried a 15-year prison sentence but the judge in the court in Florida, James Moody, threw out the gun conviction, lowering Buju's sentence to 10 years.

Yesterday, the prospect of a longer prison time loomed as three judges in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit sided with prosecutors who had appealed Moody's decision to throw out the firearm conviction.