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September 10, 2006

Trinidad: Muslim Murder Case To Start This Week

In our special report on the Trinidadian Islamist group Jamaat al-Muslimeen we described the arrest of a senior member of the group, David "Buffy" Millard (pictured), also known as Mustapha Abdullah Muhammad.

Millard had fled Trinidad in 2003, following arrest warrants for murder and conspiracy to murder. He had been accused of plotting to kill Salim "Small Salim" Rasheed and Zaki Aubaidah on June 4, 2003 at Citrine Avenue, Diamond Vale, Diego Martin. Millard is jointly accused with six other individuals in this case, including Yasin Abu Bakr, the 64-year old leader of Jamaat al-Muslimeen. Zaki Aubaidah is Abu Bakr's son-in-law. The two individuals who were targeted for killing had already been expelled from Jamaat al-Muslimeen.

On the same day that the conspiracy apparently took place, Millard is said to have shot and killed Jilla Bowen at the MovieTowne cineplex at Invader's Bay, Mucurapo, and also to have tried to murder Salim Rasheed and Addil Ghany, who were also shot. Jilla Bowen died instantly when a single bullet entered the back of her skull.

Even when he had fled Trinidad, Millard still became embroiled in murder. He was arrested after police in Guyana found evidence that he was part of the gang which gunned down the Guyanese Agriculture Minister, Satyadeow Sawh, on April 22 this year. The minister's brother and sister, and also security guard Curtis Robertson, were killed, along with the family guard dog.

43-year old Millard was extradited back to Trinidad in May. On Monday September 4, Millard appeared in Port of Spain's Eighth Court. The judge, Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls ordered that Millard should have the preliminary hearing in his trial for conspiracy to murder on Tuesday, 12 September.

For some reason Millard's attorney, Evans Welch, did not attend Monday's court hearing.

Millard had been a leading member of the group of Jamaat al-Muslimeen activists who had held the government hostage in an attempted coup which began on July 27, 1990. 24 people died in the coup.

On the conspiracy to murder charge, Yasin Abu Bakr had undergone a trial for this matter last year. After a trial lasting two and a half months, the nine-person jury failed to reach a verdict on March 16, 2005. Abu Bakr will be due back in court on October 2 for the retrial.

Millard's case is being held separately, as he was not in the country for the trial last year.

The Jamaat al-Muslimeen is a notoriously violent group, and its members, as we mentioned in our special report, have been linked with gangland killings, both as perpetrators and as victims.

The most recent case of such a killing took place on Tuesday August 22. A former member of the Jamaat, Roger Bridgeman, also known as "Black Roger", was ambushed while driving his pearl white Nissan Almera car.

He was shot several times, and slumped at the wheel, as the vehicle careered into a wall. He had an illegal gun in his possession, and he had fired it during the ambush, but it is not known if any of its bullets hit their targets. Police did not suggest a motive for his murder.

41-year old Bridgeman had left the Jamaat (a crime in the group's eyes) but was awaiting trial on kidnapping charges. It is alleged that on May 1 2005, he and a police constable and another individual kidnapped a Venezuelan national, Michelle Aravello.

When Bridgeman had been a senior leader within the Jamaat, he was the victim of a gun assault in November 2003. His car had been stopped in Arima, and he had been shot four times.

In July, Bridgeman, a father of six, was shot again, this time by a teenager riding a bicycle. He was at his home in La Horquetta when he heard someone calling out his son's name. When he went outside, he was shot at several times. One bullet hit him in the buttocks. While he was in Port of Spain General Hospital, Bridgeman had hired a 24 hour security team to protect him from further attack.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 10, 2006 4:48 PM

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