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June 14, 2006

Trinidad: Islamist Claims He Made "Deal" With Prime Minister

The man pictured at right is 64-year old Yasin Abu Bakr. He is currently in jail, awaiting trial on charges of sedition and incitement and also terrorism. These charges relate to a speech he made on November 4 at his mosque in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago's capital. There he said that if rich Muslims did not pay a tithe or zakat, that there would be bloodshed and war.

Bakr, a former policeman originally named Lennox Phillips, is the head of a group named Jamaat al Muslimeen. On July 27, 1990, Bakr and members of the Jamaat had mounted an attempted coup, which lasted six days. During this time, parliament was held hostage, the local TV station was taken over. Bakr and his followes were trying to start an Islamist state. During the violence, 24 people were killed, and the prime minister at that time, Arthur N. R. Robinson, was shot in the leg.

The group avoided being prosecuted for this incident, but as we reported on May 13, the government is suing Bakr and his group for damage caused by the coup, and accumulated interest, to the tune of $32 million. Each day that the amount is not paid, the government has stated that Abu Bakr and the Jamaat are incurring an additional daily interest of $6,480.30.

As well as awaiting trial on the terror and sedition charges, Bakr is also awaiting a retrial of a case which reached no conclusion last year, for his suspected involvement in conspiracy to murder two former members of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, Salim Rasheed (aka "Small Salim") and Zaki Abudiah, Bakr's son-in-law. Bakr is jointly accused with Brent Miller (aka "Big Brent"), David Millard (aka "Buffy"), and others known as "Dwight", "Crock", "Skins" and "Damian". Bakr will appear in court for his retrial in the case on October 2.

His co-accused David Millard, also known as Mustapha Abdullah Muhammad, had fled the country in 2003 after arrest warrants were issued against him. He was accused of shooting Jilla Bowen in the head and killing her in June 2003 and of the attempted murder of Salim Rasheed and Adel Ghany. Millard was discovered in Guyana, as we reported on May 6, where he was accused of the murder of Guyana's agriculture minister and also the politician's brother, wife and bodyguard on April 22.

Millard (pictured below, left), now in custody back in Trinidad, was due to appear in court on Friday June 9, to face the charge of conspiracy to murder Salim "Small Salim" Raheed and Zaki Abudiah. This conspiracy took place at an address in Diego Martin, and was related to the killing of Jilla Bowen. As he was not brought to court, 43-year old Millard's case has now been adjourned to June 20.

But there have been other, more dramatic developments in the Jamaat's case concerning the repayment of the $32 million, which the current government says the Jamaat owes. The government had originally brought its lawsuit against Jamaat for moneys owed on February 6 this year, in a case filed by the Attorney General, John Jeremie. In this case, several properties belonging to Abu Bakr, including the homes of his four wives and the compound in Port of Spain, were marked for confiscation, as part of the repayment.

The money to be repaid had been agreed originally in an uncontested settlement made by the state on September 16, 1996. This derived from a 1994 lawsuit, which had been brought for the firebomb damage made to the police headquarters during the 1990 coup attempt. No defence had been filed for this by the Jamaat and 57 of its members, leading to the September 1996 judgement.

There has long been a reputation that Jamaat has been involved with political corruption, as we reported on March 12. Jamaat is said to have many links with a scheme called the Unemployment Relief Programme which is officially designated to create employment, but has long been associated with political patronage and corruption.

Then we reported that the government of Trinidad and Tobago, led by Patrick Manning of the People's National Party, was engaged in a crackdown on the activities of the Jamaat, following a series of gangland-style killings since the start of the year. These have involved Jamaat members, both as perpetrators and victims.

Selwyn Ryan, a professor at the University of the West Indies, and auhor of a book entitled The Muslimeen grab for Power, stated: "I think the government is trying to disengage, but it's not that easy."

The day before Millard's court case was adjourned, Abu Bakr's attorneys appeared in court on Thursday, June 8. They produced a 61 paragraph affidavit, which stated that during the 2002 election, Abu Bakr had signed a deal with Prime Minister Patrick Manning. This deal gave Bakr and the Jamaat a waiver of all payments for costs invoked during the 1990 coup, if he would use his Muslim followers to act as "strongmen" to provide "muscle" for the People's National Movement in the election.

The 26 page document was presented at the court, and it was said by the defense lawyers that they wished to introduce evidence contained in the document as part of their defense.

As we reported on May 13, Justice Rajendra Narine had ordered the Attorney General's lawyers and those of Bakr to submit all affidavits relating to the case. However, Bakr's affidavit was filed on June 7 at Port of Spain Civil Registry at the Hall of Justice, five days after the deadline had expired.

The Allorney General requested to Judge Narine that the affidavit could not be admitted as it was an abuse of due process. Narine adjourned the issue until June 12.

So yesterday's Trinidad & Tobago Express reports that the state has now requested an additional three weeks to respond to the allegations contained in the document. Judge Narine has accepted the Jamaat document, and has noted that at the next hearing, it may be necessary to put Abu Bakr on the stand, to be cross-examined on the contents of his allegations.

Bakr claimed in a 62-paragraph June 8 affidavit that he and members of his organisation had forged a secret deal with Manning and members of the PNM to provide assistance in key marginal seats, use their influence to reduce crime and endorse the PNM for re-elections, in exchange for debt forgiveness, ownership of the eight-acre parcel of land at Mucurapo, funding for the Mucurapo Islamic College and fair and equal treatment.

Bakr claims that while the Jamaat and its membership held up its end of the bargain, the present Government had reneged on the deal and as a result the current lawsuit was an abuse of process and should be dismissed.

The story of the Jamaat has taken up several column inches of our weblog since we began in August. There was a bombing campaign in Trinidad last year, which began on July 12 and ended finally on October 14, when Abu Bakr and members of the Jamaat were arrested. Jamaat was released shortly after, claiming innocence.

However, following this arrest for his speech, made on November 4 to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, his compound was raided by army and police, during which Bakr's office was bulldozed, while his wives wept and wailed outside. Buried in the floor of the compound was found a rifle, ammunition and a grenade.

it appears that members of his Islamist "army" were still planning to create chaos even while the leader was behind bars. On December 22, at the rented address in Arima, 10 miles east of Port of Spain, police raided the home of two Jamaat members. The police found two plane tickets, indicating the pair planned to flee the island imminently. In the home, there was a large bomb, with wires, antennae and timers, which was being packaged by the pair at the time of the swoop. They were arrested.

So many twists and turns in the fortunes of the Jamaat have taken place that I intend to soon condense a selection of our previous articles into a special report.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 14, 2006 11:50 PM

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Posted by: sonofwalker at June 15, 2006 12:17 AM

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