Crucify him, says Elder

SENIOR COUNSEL Pamela Elder concluded her address on biblical terms yesterday. In her two-day finale to the jury, Elder spent considerable time using biblical phrases and reminding the court that this was the season of Lent. The solemnity of the season did not escape the leading defence attorney for Jamaat Al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr, who is on trial for conspiracy to murder. Like Jesus Christ more than 2,000 years ago, Elder said her client faces the same hurdle. She told the jury that they would have to walk with the cross up the hill, like Christ did on Good Friday.  “If you have doubt, acquit him. If you are sure, by your verdict, you crucify him, you say guilty.”

Elder said it was very significant, the time of the trial. As a Roman Catholic, she said this was the time of Lent, a period of reflection. “I can’t help but think of my client; to hear more of the suffering from the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been walking with this case since 2003. I have grown tired along the way, I have made mistakes along the way. “I have walked with what I considered my cross. I have to put down my cross. The time is now. I ask myself: are you strong enough to walk with the cross I have walked with since 2003?” the Jamaat’s attorney asked. Elder continued, “you have seen me, you have witnessed how Mrs Elder conducted her defence. It is a fight, the judge stays where he is, he does not come down in what we call the arena. He has to stay there to judge the fight. If he descends in the arena, he might get blinded by the dust of battle.

“This is a significant period for me. I am happy I am doing this case. When you take the cross from my client, would you do like (Pontius) Pilate and turn your face away from innocence, turn away from the majority? It is up to you. “All I ask you to do, walk with that cross as I did, take it up the hill, when you reach the top, if you have doubt, acquit my client. If you are sure, by your verdict, you crucify him, you say guilty. I have done all I can possibly do in this case. “When I pass my cross, you hold my client as dearly as I have held him. You fight for the system of justice. You hold my client as though he was my father, my brother, my lover. Only release him to the State if you are sure that he conspired to kill two persons.

“I cannot be with you in the jury room, but in the words of that hymn ‘all I ask is that you remember me.’ Hear my voice, and may God be with every one of us. Thank you Mr Foreman, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.” The courtroom was silent and one could have heard a pin drop with that these final words to the jury on behalf of her client. Elder was completed at 2 pm paving the way for British Queen’s Counsel Sir Timothy Cassel to reply when hearing resumes at 9 am today. Cassel is not expected to last more than two hours. In normal cases, the judge will sum up right after the prosecutor completes his address. But Justice Mark Mohammed, who is sitting in the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court, is not expected to begin his summing up until next week. (See pages 19, 20, 25, and 26)