“Allah-u-Ackbar! Allah-u-Ackbar!� So shouted followers of Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr at the Hall of Justice yesterday as Bakr took his exit from the court.
By Indarjit SeurajBakr was granted bail in the sum of TT$400,000, with two sureties, on charges of sedition, terrorism and incitement against him by Justice Herbert Volney, who said Bakr’s incarceration had been a “deprivation of liberty.�
The judge said it was unfair for accused people, who were remanded in custody without bail on serious charges, to spend such lengthy periods in prison.
“Every day spent in prison, when you are presumed innocent, is really an injustice,� Justice Volney said.
“Is that just? It can never be just,� the judge added.
It was the third attempt for bail for Bakr before a judge in chambers and the second before Volney.
As he emerged from the Hall of Justice, the frail-looking Bakr, who led a bloody coup attempt in 1990, was surrounded by male followers and whisked away in his silver Nissan vehicle to the Mucurapo headquarters, presumably to address his flock for the first time since his arrest in November.
It was after his Eid sermon on November 4, 2005, that Bakr was charged for alleged threats he made during the celebrations at the Jamaat mosque on Mucurapo Road, St James. He was charged with three offences and had been incarcerated since.
Volney said yesterday the State may some day have to change its position on objecting to bail for people charged with serious offences as the prisons would become overcrowded. He said there were no increases in the number of judges or courts to facilitate this.
“The judiciary is at this situation today,� he said.
The judge had upheld the submission by Senior Counsel Theodore Guerra, who led fellow Senior Counsel Pamela Elder and lawyers Celeste Jules and Richard Mason.
At the bail hearing yesterday, defence lawyers argued that Bakr would have had to wait a long time before the sedition trial concluded.
Guerra said the Prisons Service had neglected Bakr’s ill health. He also said his client was incarcerated in solitary confinement in the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca.
This, although lawyer for the State Dana Seetahal informed Volney that she had spoken to Asst Prisons Commissioner, who informed her Bakr was incarcerated at the infirmary.
Guerra also spoke of the State’s discontinuance of the arms and ammunition charges against Bakr shortly after he had been committed to stand trial for the sedition charge.
Seetahal, who appeared with Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson, said the court should weigh the public benefit against the applicant’s interest in having bail granted. She said the State was “moving with speed� to have the sedition charges heard.
Seetahal also said he had been committed to stand trial in January and the indictment for the trial was filed in April.
In an interview afterwards, Bakr’s second wife Fatima said: “Nothing happens but by the will of Allah. Allah has put him in and Allah has chosen this day to take him out. It is only by the mercy of Allah,� she said.
Volney ordered that Bakr must not leave the country unless granted leave by a judge sitting in chambers, and that he must return for the December 14 cause list when the sedition, terrorism and incitement trial again comes up for hearing.
