Fran­cis Joseph

Ja­maat al Mus­limeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr wants a per­ma­nent stay of his tri­al on charges of sedi­tion, ter­ror­ism and in­cite­ment. This was stat­ed by at­tor­ney Wayne Sturge yes­ter­day as he com­plained, for yet an­oth­er time, about ad­verse pre-tri­al pub­lic­i­ty against his client.

It was not the first time that Bakr had com­plained about the ad­verse pre-tri­al pub­lic­i­ty. In fact, Jus­tice Mark Mo­hammed had ruled last year that the tri­al be de­layed to al­low the pub­lic­i­ty to sub­side. When the mat­ter was called be­fore Mo­hammed in the Port-of-Spain Third Crim­i­nal Court yes­ter­day, Sturge raised the mat­ter again.

He point­ed to re­cent com­ments of At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie, on the de­ci­sion of Jus­tice Ra­jen­dra Nar­ine to send Bakr's af­fi­davit to the act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and the act­ing Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions in the sum­mons for sale case. Sturge said as tit­u­lar head of the Bar, Je­re­mie should be more care­ful as to what he says re­lat­ing to Bakr. Sturge asked Mo­hammed to di­rect that Je­re­mie "shut up." Sturge was al­so con­cerned yes­ter­day about com­ments made on tele­vi­sion by re­tired Jus­tice of Ap­peal Jean Per­manand, on the same is­sue. Per­manand is a mem­ber of the Ju­di­cial and Le­gal Ser­vice Com­mis­sion and al­so chair­man of the Law Re­form Com­mis­sion.

Sturge al­so cit­ed a re­port in the Trinidad Ex­press in which he said the news­pa­per sug­gest­ed that Bakr was a liar. "I want to put the court on no­tice that we will be com­ing for a per­ma­nent stay of the in­dict­ment," he added. Dana See­ta­hal, SC, who rep­re­sent­ed the State, found noth­ing wrong with what Je­re­mie had said. She said the court could not give an or­der for the AG to be si­lenced. She added that It could guide the AG on mat­ters such as pre-tri­al pub­lic­i­ty. Mo­hammed said he would look at the is­sue again, and give his rul­ing next Tues­day. 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.