‘Buffy’ complains to Mc Nicolls

"Taken from our C O U R T section.

TOP Jamaat Al Muslimeen member David “Buffy” Millard complained bitterly to the Chief Magistrate yesterday that the police at the courthouse forced a young Muslim accused to remove his taj before he went into court.

Millard surprised many when he stood in court and said he had something to say, separate from the conspiracy to murder charge he was facing.

Millard told Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court that young Muslim accused Jovan Maxwell was due to appear in the Fourth Court on June 21. But he was informed by policemen in the holding cells that if he did not remove his taj (head wear) he would not be sent to court.

Millard said the situation was the same in prison, but he said the authorities there do not interfere with him, Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, or senior Jamaat members. Millard said Maxwell complained to him because he (Millard) was the youth’s spiritual leader. Mc Nicolls responded, “I find it surprising.”

Millard added, “I refrained from saying it before, or at the prison. I want it to be probed that certain police officers and certain prison officers are discriminating against us and they want to influence their beliefs on others.”

Court prosecutor Sgt Winston Dillon found the complaint to be very trivial. He couldn’t see why such a complaint could not be made to the police at the court cells. Millard said the police have been fair “but police are police and they stick together.” Mc Nicolls promised that the complaint would be investigated.

Millard appeared in court charged with conspiring to murder two expelled members of the Jamaat — Salim Rasheed and Zaki Aubiadah — on June 4, 2003 at Citrine Drive, Diamond Vale, Diego Martin.

State attorney Jennifer Martin said the Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson wanted an adjournment to put certain things in place.

While defence attorney Evans Welch did not resist the application, he informed the court that he was hearing the same request all the time. Welch asked that this matter be dealt with expeditiously. Hearing was adjourned to July 10.