Fran­cis Joseph

For­mer sol­dier Ri­car­do de Four, one of sev­en Trinida­di­ans con­vict­ed of tak­ing US cit­i­zen, Bal­ram "Ba­lo" Ma­haraj hostage, may nev­er get the chance to prove that he was at Camp Omega, Ch­aguara­mas, on the day that Ma­haraj was kid­napped. The records which could have giv­en him an al­i­bi, have been de­stroyed by the T&T Reg­i­ment, ac­cord­ing to a state­ment from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, act­ing in ac­cor­dance with the Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act (FOIA). Ma­haraj, 62, was kid­napped on April 6, 2005, from Samaan Tree Bar in Aranguez, San Juan, but his re­mains were not found un­til Jan­u­ary 8, 2006. De Four, who was a mem­ber of the Spe­cial Forces unit, claimed that he was at­tend­ing a course for mem­bers of his unit on that day, and could nev­er have car­ried out the kid­nap­ping.

His at­tor­neys, Wash­ing­ton-based Jonathan Zuck­er and Kei­th Scot­land, wrote to the min­istry on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions, seek­ing in­for­ma­tion, such as the ar­rival and de­par­ture records of April 6, 2005, and oth­er dates on which it was al­leged that de Four was in­volved in three oth­er kid­nap­pings. The last let­ter was dis­patched on Sep­tem­ber 29, and the Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty re­spond­ed on Oc­to­ber 14, un­der the FIOA. Ac­cord­ing to the min­istry, the records show that the name de Four does not ap­pear on the ar­rival and de­par­ture records of the T&T Reg­i­ment for the date, April 6, 2005, at Camp Omega. Fur­ther, the T&T Reg­i­ment in­di­cat­ed it was un­able to pro­vide gate slips for that date. "These were among oth­er doc­u­ments be­ing stored in a 40-foot con­tain­er which was flood­ed by rain­fall, re­sult­ing in the doc­u­ments be­ing se­vere­ly dam­aged."

A team of of­fi­cers, led by the chief clerk, was tasked to ex­am­ine the doc­u­ments. It was de­ter­mined that they were dam­aged be­yond use, and could not be sal­vaged. "Those doc­u­ments were sub­se­quent­ly au­tho­rised to be de­stroyed by in­cin­er­a­tion, and were ac­tu­al­ly in­cin­er­at­ed dur­ing the pe­ri­od Au­gust to Sep­tem­ber, 2005," the min­istry added. The re­sponse of the min­istry al­so in­di­cat­ed that there was no "mark­ing in and book­ing out" for de Four for April 6, 2005. In oth­er words, as far as the Reg­i­ment is con­cerned, de Four was nev­er there that day. But a copy of a log book, which was ten­dered in the lo­cal and Wash­ing­ton courts, showed that de Four was present on the course, at least up to mid­day. Chief of De­fence Staff, Brig Ed­mund Dil­lon, took of­fence to the doc­u­ment be­ing pub­lished in the T&T Guardian in Sep­tem­ber, say­ing the names of oth­er sol­diers were men­tioned, and this could put their lives at risk.

A re­quest was al­so made for the ar­rival and de­par­ture records for de Four on De­cem­ber 16, 2004, March 12, 2005, and June 21, 2005, the days when Dex­ter Jagdeo, Robin Ra­madar and Si­ta Ra­goo­nanan were kid­napped. Ac­cord­ing to the records, de Four was not on the work ros­ter for De­cem­ber 16, 2004, or March 12, 2005. But his name ap­peared once on the ar­rival and de­par­ture records of the Reg­i­ment for June 21, 2005, as leav­ing Camp Omega at 3.56 pm. The records show that de Four's name ap­peared on the work ros­ter for du­ty from 8 am, on June 20, to 8 am on June 21, 2005. De Four, who is in the DC Jail in Wash­ing­ton, await­ing sen­tence, need­ed the al­i­bi doc­u­ments to present to the court as a spe­cial mo­tion. Ac­cord­ing to his fa­ther, Hol­lis de Four, if those doc­u­ments were avail­able, his son had a good chance of get­ting a re­tri­al.

Hol­lis de Four even wrote to Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, seek­ing as­sis­tance.