‘I spoke to Manning, Joan about youths’

YASIN ABU BAKR, the leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, told the police on August 21, 2003, that he had spoken to Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Culture Minister Joan Yuille-Williams about trying to get the youths off the streets. While in custody on enquiries into the allegations that he conspired to kill two former members of the Jamaat, Bakr spoke of a number of things with investigators during an interview lasting two hours and ten minutes. The notes of this interview were released before Justice Mark Mohammed in the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court yesterday. It was the first time since the trial began that words uttered by the accused were given in evidence.

Giving that evidence was PC Michael Veronique of the Homicide Bureau who sat in during the interview between Bakr and the investigating officer, Cpl Jayson Forde. Veronique was the fifth witness to take the stand yesterday, following after Sgt Clyde Phillip of the Homicide Bureau, PC Roger Grant police photographer, PC Wendell Lucas of the Homicide Bureau, and WPC Thalia Megan-Francis, also of the Homicide Bureau. Veronique said he received instructions from ASP David Nedd and as a result, he went into the Superintendent’s office where he saw the accused. Cpl Forde identified himself to Bakr and told him that he was investigating a report that he (Bakr) conspired to kill Salim Rasheed and Zaki Aubaidah on June 4, 2003.

Veronique said Bakr denied the allegation, saying that one of the victims was one of his children. “I took him off the streets. He migrate to America and come back. He became a sort of embarrassment to the organisation and I had to dismiss him,” Bakr related to the police. Bakr said he first heard about the shooting at MovieTowne on the radio the morning after. He heard that Salim was shot along with a girl. He knew that one Brent was charged with killing the girl, whom he said he did not know. “I had a bad feeling about the situation when the girl was killed. Never should a Muslim kill another Muslim, both will go to hell because if he knows that he was going to be killed, he would also kill.” The Jamaat leader said that before the MovieTowne shooting, Salim and another member, Kazim, were shot at in St James.

“Kazim was in a problem with the Sabga situation,” Bakr added. When questioned by lead prosecutor Sir Timothy Cassel QC, PC Veronique said he understood that to mean the kidnapping of one of the Sabga family members. Bakr told the investigators that whenever problems arise, Assistant Commissioner (Crime) Oswyn Allard would call him. He cooperates with the police and he revealed that he would take in persons to be dealt with. He insisted that he was trying to clean up the image of the Jamaat, pointing out that persons seek protection from the Muslimeen. In that interview, Bakr talked about his four wives, his eight children, and his four homes in Diego Martin (two), Dibe, Long Circular, and Queen’s Park East. Veronique will be further cross-examined when hearing resumes this morning.