Officials of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen say they are determined now more than ever to topple the ruling PNM Government after their leader, Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, was again refused bail yesterday.
By Darren BahawOne senior Jamaat official told the Express yesterday that the organisation intends to provide the police with independent evidence to corroborate the statements of Vernon Paul, who has accused top PNM officials of being involved in a plot to frame two former UNC government ministers on drug and weapons charges in order win the general elections in 2002.
Another high-ranking official, Kala Aki Bua, told members of the media outside the Hall of Justice that the Jamaat was being used as a "soft target" by Government.
He said that the organisation had been accused of being involved in illegal quarrying but no evidence was found to support those charges.
"We have seen these pictures and don't expect anything better. This is another soft target against the Muslim community. The Jamaat is a soft target," he said.
Moments earlier, Justice Prakash Moosai, sitting in the Port of Spain First Criminal Court, ruled that Abu Bakr will remain in prison until his trial on charges of promoting a terrorist act, and four other criminal offences relating to his November, 2005 Eid sermon.
The judge said that while he does not believe the accused may be considered a flight risk, his decision was based on the possibility of him committing further offences if granted bail.
Since his arrest on November 7, 2005, the Jamaat leader, a father of 15, has been repeatedly denied bail by both Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls and Justice Herbert Volney.
Special prosecutors Douglas Mendes SC and Dana Seetahal represented the State while Theodore Guerra SC, Pamela Elder SC and Richard Mason appeared for the accused.
Apart from those charges, Abu Bakr is also awaiting a retrial on a charge of conspiring to murder two expelled members of his mosque and that matter comes up for hearing on February 16, when a trial date may be fixed.
"I am of the view that the State has satisfied me on a balance of probabilities that there are substantial grounds for believing that the applicant (Abu Bakr), if released on bail, would commit an offence while on bail. In the exercise of my discretion the Court rejects the application for bail of the reasons stated," he concluded in his 13-page ruling.
Abu Bakr, 64, escaped prosecution on charges of murder and treason as result of a bloody six-day siege against the then NAR government in July 1990, on the basis on a High Court ruling which validated an amnesty protecting the 114 insurgents.
A fresh bail application was made on January 20, after Abu Bakr was committed to stand trial on the five charges relating to his sermon, and on that date Moosai said he was informed that the State intended to discontinue three additional charges - illegal possession of a hand grenade, 569 rounds of 5.56 ammunition and a sniper's rifle-against the accused.
"These are serious offences, which because they target the Muslim community, can have a destabilising effect on the country. Generally, and without undertaking an over-elaborate dissection of the evidence, the nature of the offences is that the application has called upon members of his group, the Jamaat al Muslimeen, to declare war on all other Muslims in Trinidad and Tobago who are not part of his group for the purpose of the collection of the zakaat, whether by lawful or unlawful means," Moosai stated.
