‘I swear on my wives’

YASIN ABU BAKR insisted yesterday that he never conspired to kill anyone and would swear on the lives of his mother, his four wives and 14 children. Bakr, the leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, spent all day in the witness stand under cross-examination by lead prosecutor Sir Timothy Cassel QC. Bakr maintained his innocence, saying he knew nothing about the shooting at MovieTowne which claimed the life of Jillia Bowen, and injured Salim Rasheed and Adil Ghani. Cassel cross-examined Bakr on the 1990 attempted coup. Bakr admitted that he was the leader of the coup attempt in which lives were lost and property damaged. But he said he was not responsible for the persons who died during that period.

He turned to the British prosecutor: “During the war, Germany attacked Britain and Britain subsequently joined allied forces. Millions of lives were lost. Was Britain responsible for the loss of lives?” He continued, “In this court, there is a right of self-defence. If I were to submerge your head in a pale of water, if you feel you are going to drown, you will raise your head.” Bakr said since the events of 1990 unfolded, the Jamaat never had a chance to ventilate its side of the story. He said successive governments were asked to conduct a Commission of Inquiry to determine what was responsible for the tragedy, but nothing was done.

“If there is one, we will find out who were the villains and it will exonerate us. We only heard their side of the story. There have been repeated calls for a Commission of Inquiry, but it has not been done,” Bakr told a very packed and silent court room comprising his relatives, followers, security officers and members of the legal fraternity. So packed was the court that Justice Mark Mohammed presiding in the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court allowed lawyers to sit between the nine-member jury panel and the two alternates. Bakr was unwilling to tell Cassel the membership of the Jamaat al Muslimeen. “That is a security risk. I can’t disclose that to you,” the Jamaat leader told the prosecutor.

But Cassel pushed on for a figure — “200, 500, 1,000, 10,000, even 20,000” but he got no answer from the accused. Cassel asked why the Jamaat needed security when it was a religious organisation. He said security was important, adding that he saw on CNN that the judge hearing the trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was killed. It was shortly after that Bakr captured the attention of everyone when he said there have been several attempts on his life in Trinidad.

He said these attempts were made by people in high places, but he did not want to divulge the names. He said quite recently, the Minister of National Security, Martin Joseph, told the Senate that several influential businessmen came to him with a list of people whom they wanted killed. “My information from my security and intelligence is that my name was one of those people,” the Imam added. He said he called on radio and asked the minister to divulge the names of these people, but that was not done. “That is conspiracy to murder. If that is not conspiracy to murder, then why am I standing here?” he asked.

He called on the Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson, who was seated in court, to say something about this matter. On another point, Bakr said he does not know the whereabouts of David “Buffy” Millard, one of the co-conspirators charged in this case. He denied that Buffy was a member of the Jamaat, or the Imam’s second-in-command. He said he had not seen Buffy since the MovieTowne shooting on June 4, 2003. He never made inquiries and said Buffy’s whereabouts are of no significance to him because he never conspired with Buffy to kill anyone. “I have no idea if Buffy is alive,” the Jamaat leader told the jury. Bakr also denied that the late Mark Guerra was his second-in-command. When hearing ended at 3.30 pm yesterday, Bakr was still being cross-examined by Cassel. Hearing resumes at 8.30 am today.