Antigua Attorney General ‘stable’ in hospital after collapse

ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — Antigua and Barbuda’s Attorney General, Justin Simon QC, remained in hospital late Saturday in stable condition after collapsing at a restaurant, an official source has said.

Simon, said to be in his fifties, reportedly collapsed around 4.30 pm, while out with friends at Big Banana, a popular eatery in downtown St Johns.

He was rushed to the Mount St John’s Medical Centre, the main state hospital about a kilometre away.

A senior government official who said he was receiving regular updates on the attorney general’s health but asked not to be identified, told the Caribbean Media Corporation that Simon was conscious, alert and in stable condition.

Key figures in government could not be reached for details of Simon’s illness and condition.

The Dominica-born Simon was appointed as Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General in the original cabinet of Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer when his United Progressive Party (UPP) swept to power in March 2004, ending the 28-year rule of the Antigua Labour Party (ALP).

Simon, who had originally told Spencer he intended to serve one-term as the government’s principal legal adviser, has stayed on past the UPP’s election to a second term in office in 2009.