‘Buffy’ in court today

DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Hender-son yesterday gave directions to Sgt Jayson Forde of the Homicide Bureau, to lay a charge of conspiracy to commit murder against former fugitive David “Buffy” Millard. He will appear before a Port-of-Spain Magistrate today to answer the charge.

On Saturday, a Trinidad and Tobago Air Wing 19-seater plane brought Millard home from Guyana where the Jamaat Al Muslimeen member was arrested four days ago.

Millard, who was handcuffed on his arrival in Trinidad, was escorted by officers of the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT) to a cell at Port-of-Spain CID where he spent the night.

Yesterday, he was removed from the cell and taken to the Homicide Bureau where he was formally charged by Sgt Forde. Millard remains under 24-hour watch, sources said.

He was detained by the Guyanese police pending investigations into the disappearance of 30 AK-47 assault rifles and five pistols from the Guyana Defence Force on February 23.

Yesterday, he was charged by Sgt Forde with conspiracy to murder — a charge which arose out of the June 4, 2003 murder of mother of one Jilla Bowen outside MovieTowne.

In June 2003, it was alleged that Buffy and Jamaat leader Yasin Abu Bakr, conspired at a house in Diamond Vale, to murder two expelled members of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen — Salim Rasheed and Zaki Aubaidah.

Millard fled Trinidad for Guyana in August 2003 and could not be found by the police. On August 21, 2003, Bakr was arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder. However, the jury on March 16, 2005, failed to arrive at a verdict and a retrial was ordered. Bakr’s second trial on the conspiracy to murder charge will begin on October 2.

Abu Bakr has not been granted bail and remains in jail. He also has another charge before the court — that of sedition, incitement and terrorism allegedly arising out of an Eid sermon at the Muslimeen’s Mucurapo Road compound on November 7, 2005.