Bakr brings alibi witness, but...

AN ALIBI witness testified on behalf of Jamaat Al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr yesterday. But leading defence attorney Pamela Elder SC is still concerned at the inability of the defence to determine who compiled certain TSTT records for the period June 3 and 7, 2003. Elder asked for another adjournment in the hope that Sam Martin, chief executive officer of TSTT, will respond to her letter dated June 9, for certain telephone records relating to key prosecution witness Brent “Big Brent” Miller in the inquiry. When the matter was called yesterday, Elder informed Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls that the TSTT employee who went into the witness box last Tuesday was not a defence witness.

“Let the record show that this person was not a witness for the defence. That person was never interviewed by the defence. That witness became known to the defence through the court’s intervention and through TSTT.” (The name of the witness cannot be published at this time based on an order of the court.) Elder then called Coleen Marchand to the witness stand. She was led by Elder’s junior, Owen Hinds Jr. Marchand, of Dehli Road, Fyzabad, is an executive secretary with Johnson-Simon General Contractors Ltd, a company based at Harris Village, South Oropouche. The accused, Yasin Abu Bakr, was employed with the contracting firm as a project supervisor in June 2003. Marchand’s examination-in-chief went smoothly and without interruption. It was the cross-examination by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Carla Brown-Antoine that triggered off several heated exchanges with Elder.

The cross-talk, objections, and comments brought laughter to those in court. Even the Chief Magistrate, sitting in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court, could not hold back smiling at the verbal battle taking place between the two attorneys. This battle continued unabated until Marchand had completed her testimony. Even a log book owned by Marchand was the subject of the exchanges. When Marchand was finished, many thought the inquiry had come to an end. But Elder informed the court that based on what had transpired with the TSTT employee last Tuesday, she had written to Sam Martin at TSTT concerning certain telephone records. “These records are very critical to the case of the defence,” Elder told the court. “These records are linked to the evidence of Miss Marchand,” she added.

Elder continued, “It is also linked to the evidence of Brent Miller.” Miller was one of the key prosecution witnesses who testified in the early stages of the inquiry. Elder said she would not be discharging her duty to her client without obtaining the records from TSTT. “It is essential that we get those records, which are critical to the defence, and which should be disclosed now. No one can say who compiled the records. If I have to get a summons for every member of the Fraud and Detection Department, I will do so.” She added, “I need to have these records put in now. With the passage of time, documents disappear and go missing.

I have no further witness, and I am awaiting a response from Mr Sam Martin. We have had dialogue, but that did not reach anywhere. This is critical evidence. This was requested from the State and disclosed by the State. We need that.” Elder asked for an opportunity to obtain a response from Sam Martin and hopefully a compilation of the records from TSTT. The inquiry was then adjourned to June 18. Bakr, 63, is charged with conspiring with others to murder expelled Jamaat members Salim Rasheed and Zaki Aubidah on June 4, 2003 at Citrine Drive, Diamond Vale, Diego Martin.