1,200 jurors called for Bakr trial

AT LEAST 1,200 potential jurors have been summoned to a transformed Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain this morning for the start of the conspiracy to murder trial of Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr. Bakr, 63, appears before Justice Mark Mohammed in the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court charged jointly with David ‘‘Buffy’’ Millard and others with conspiring to murder expelled Jamaat members Salim Rasheed and Zaki Aubaidah on June 4, 2003 at Citrine Drive, Diamond Vale, Diego Martin. Bakr was committed to stand trial by Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls on July 14, last year. It is the first time that so many potential jurors have been summoned to court for one case. The last time hundreds of potential jurors were called was in 1996 for the murder trial of Dole Chadee and eight others. That trial was held at the Chaguaramas High Court.

To facilitate so many potential jurors, the Supreme Court has transformed the Hall of Justice. The first floor of the three-storey courtroom no longer looks the same. The northern end of the floor has been blocked off to the public. The four civil courts at the northern end have been relocated to another area in the Hall of Justice. That section has been partitioned off to accommodate the 1,200 potential jurors who will be packed into the building today. These jurors will also meet up with jurors from five other criminal courts where 13 other trials are listed for hearing this morning. Criminal Courts 1, 2 and 3 fall within the blocked off area and only persons with business in these courts will be allowed beyond a door with a sign stating ‘‘please  watch your step.’’

Hundreds of chairs were stacked into that designated area yesterday, while two big television screens were erected so that the jurors would be allowed to follow what the judge and lawyers would be saying inside the court with respect to them. This is being done because the court being used for the trial can in no way accommodate that number of people. Yesterday when Newsday passed through the building, MTS workers and other personnel were busy putting the final touches in place for the start of the trial. At 11.30 am, acting Chief Justice Roger Hamel-Smith, Appeal Court Judge Stanley John and Justice Mark Mohammed were seen inspecting the makeshift facilities.

Security will be extremely tight as everyone will be subjected to searches at the entrance to the ground floor, as well as the extra scanner put in place at the entrance to the Third Criminal Court. Court officials confirmed that everything was in place for the trial to begin. Even media accommodation was finalised as the court expects extra journalists to be filing in to cover the case. Bakr is expected to arrive at the court with a large number of his followers from the Jamaat. The prosecution’s team will be led by British Queen’s Counsel Sir Timothy Cassel who arrived in Trinidad over the weekend. Bakr will be defended by Pamela Elder SC and Owen Hinds Jr.