Trial date set for Bakr vs State

Justice Frank Seepersad yesterday fixed February 6, 2017 for hearing of the trial in the Port-of-Spain High Court.

Bakr had also filed a parallel challenge in which he claimed his right to a fair trial was infringed when he was charged with a 1998 murder as a result of a Coroner’s decision.

Seepersad held that Bakr’s constitutional motion was an abuse and any challenge against the magistrate’s decision as Coroner should have been done by way of a judicial review application.

On September 29, 2010, Magistrate Nalini Singh, acting in the capacity of a coroner, ruled that there was sufficient evidence for both Bakr and Brent “Big Brent” Miller to be charged with the murder of Israel Sammy, 22, who was killed on May 20, 1998.

Bakr and Miller were the subjects of an inquest into Sammy’s death at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court.

Three weeks after Singh gave her ruling, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, discontinued the preliminary enquiry, saying there was insufficient evidence to proceed.