Attorney Wayne Sturge said yesterday that there was no evidence that Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr was linked to the JFK terror plot, in which a Trinidadian and three Guyanese have been indicted.

In arguing for a permanent stay of the indictment against his client on charges of terrorism, sedition, and incitement, Sturge placed blame on adverse pre-trial publicity at the feet of Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Attorney General John Jeremie. Sturge said that in 2007, Jeremie linked Bakr to the New York terror plot. “There is no evidence that Abu Bakr was linked to that terror plot,” he added. He said Bakr’s British Queen’s Counsel William Hicks was upset about the allegation. He said there was a temporary stay of the indictment, athough he said that Dana Seetahal, SC, called it a “cooling-off” period.

Sturge said he had no reason to doubt that a ruling from Justice Mark Mohammed in 2007, concerning adverse pre-trial publicity, would have been communicated to Manning, Jeremie and other public officials. He said: “The Attorney General ought to know that the trial has not begun, and that it should begin in due course. As titular head of the Bar, his statements are being made in a negative way about the accused.” Sturge said statements made by Manning in July at a public meeting in Diego Martin were ill-timed. He said the Prime Minister, on the eve of the anniversary of the 1990 attempted coup, made reference to a plot to assassinate him. Counsel said the PM sought to implicate a police officer in that plot, who, according to the Prime Minister, was connected to some organisation.

Sturge said that shortly after Justice Rajendra Narine directed that an affidavit sworn to by Bakr should be sent to the acting Commissioner of Police and the acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for investigation, Jeremie stood up in Parliament and attacked the judge. “The AG said that Abu Bakr is an insurrectionist...that is a prejudicial statement,” he added. Sturge said the AG did not seem to be bothered by what anyone said. He said: “He was warned once and he continues to do what he wants. He has not taken heed, he will do it again. This is a man who respects no one. He has come again to make mischief.”

Sturge asked for a permanent stay of the indictment, or alternatively, a warning to public officials. In response, Seetahal, who represents the State, said there was nothing to show which could give rise to a permanent stay of the indictment. She said by the time the trial came up, jurors would not remember what was said. She said many statements were made in Parliament and it would be difficult for people to remember everything. “Do you think that the ordinary man would remember the plot raised by the Prime Minister?” she asked. Mohammed, presiding in the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court, will give his ruling on Monday.

Bakr charges
Bakr, 66, of La Puerta Road, Diego Martin, is facing charges of sedition, terrorism, incitement, and breaching the peace, arising out of his sermon to commemorate Eid-ul-Fitr on November 4, 2005, at his Mucurapo Road mosque.

Terror plot charges
Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim, Guyanese Russel De Freitas, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur have been indicted on charges of plotting to blow up JFK International Airport, New York, in 2007.

De Freitas, a former employee of JFK, was arrested in Brooklyn on June 1, 2007. Kadir and Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad on June 3, 2007. Nur surrendered to police two days later in Diego Martin. On June 29, 2007, the four men were indicted on charges of conspiring to “cause death, serious bodily injury and extensive destruction” at the airport.