Freed Caracas detainee for Sando court

As to the charge he would be facing, police remain tight-lipped yesterday to Sunday Newsday, but his mother, Gloria Charles, who denounced her son’s arrest at Piarco International Airport, said she visited him at the San Fernando Police Station yesterday morning and police officers had informed her about a warrant dating back to a case pending against him approximately two years ago.

“I waited over two years to see my son and they talking about some case where he didn’t pay some money, “Gloria, 56, said.

Gloria and Charles’ two wives and several of his ten children, journeyed from their San Juan home yesterday to the San Fernando Police Station and were allowed to speak to Charles. Gloria said he was being kept in a cell in the station.

Charles and the other four nationals, Asim Luqman, Andre Battersby, Dominic Pitilall and Leslie Daisley, were arrested at a hotel in Venezuela on March 19, 2014 for suspected terrorism activities. They were taken on several occasions to court and eventually pleaded guilty to a charge of espionage.

Umar Abdullah, head of the Islamic Front who visited the men in Caracas and who earlier this year spent over two months there, told Sunday Newsday he learned that the charge against Charles was related to a private civil matter.

Abdullah said, “It seems that while Charles was in a Caracas jail, he could not meet his obligation here in Trinidad.

The matter was reported to the police and it has become a criminal matter.

It is not that Charles committed a crime, or, was wanted for any criminal conduct.

This could happen to anyone.” Abdullah also visited Charles at the station.

About the predicament the five nationals had faced in Venezuela, Abdullah commented that the men would be consulting with attorneys to determine the extent to which their constitutional rights were infringed.

Over $1 million, he added, were spent on paying lawyers in Caracas to represent the men in their court appearances over the two years and eight months. Abdullah said, “Whilst the men were charged with espionage and the two years and eight months they spent were incorporated into the sentence they received. We would be speaking with attorneys here to determine whether we can have these convictions eradicated (overturned) based on the fact these men were forced to plead guilty.” Some time this week, Abdullah added, the men would be speaking to the media about their experience in Venezuela.