Former attorney general Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday called for an independent probe into an alleged deal between Prime Minister Patrick Manning and the leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen Yasin Abu Bakr.She made the call during her contribution to the budget debate in the Lower House yesterday.

Justice Rajendra Narine on Friday asked the acting Commissioner of Police and the acting Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate Bakr’s claim that he made a deal with Manning to forgive his (Bakr’s) multi-million dollar debt to the State following the destruction of buildings during the 1990 attempted coup. Earlier yesterday Attorney General John Jeremie told Parliament there was no truth in that allegation. The Siparia MP insisted that although the court may have ruled that Abu Bakr’s allegation was scandalous and irrelevant “it does not mean it is not true.”

Persad-Bissessar insisted she had serious concerns about the matter.
“These are serious allegations that in the public interest, ought to be investigated, ought to be clarified. I am sure the citizens of this country are very distressed to think that there may be possible criminal conduct on the part of the prime minister,” she said. Persad-Bissessar said the judge has not ruled on whether the claim was true or false. She said the UNC witnessed the work of the Muslimeen during the (2002) election campaign. “And this is what the affidavit is alleging, that they were used; Muslimeen power was used to intimidate, harass and frighten voters in the marginal constituencies so the PNM would win the elections.”

And she waded into Jeremie saying he was “compromising the investigation by coming here” and saying that Abu Bakr’s allegation was not true. “It is not for the Attorney General to judge and given his track record of judgment, we have very serious concerns with anything that he pronounces upon,” Persad-Bissessar added. She said if Jeremie made that statement outside of Parliament “he would have been guilty of contempt of court and he would have had to go to jail.” Persad-Bissessar and Speaker Barendra Sinanan had different views about the legality of someone criticising a judgment. Persad-Bissessar said one can criticise the judgment but not the judge. “When I listened to the (Jeremie’s) statement it was an attack on the judge of the Supreme Court.”