Port of Spain – Police have charged the leader of the New National Vision (NNV) political party, Fuad Abu Bakr, with several criminal charges, including using violent language to provoke people to commit a breach of the peace following his arrest on Tuesday as people protested the killing of three people by police last weekend.
Bakr, the son of the Muslim Leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, who in 1990 staged a failed coup here, remained in police custody late on Wednesday night.
Media said that the NNV leader had been slapped with three counts of assaulting a police officer at the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest near the United States embassy in June.
In relation to Tuesday’s protests, Bakr was charged with using violent language to provoke people to commit a breach of the peace and breaking the coronavirus (COVID-19) regulations that prevents more than 25 people gathering at any one time.
His attorney Kashif Gibson on Wednesday night confirmed that his client was still in police custody and has not ruled out the possibility of filing an application in the High Court to have him released on bail.
Bakr was arrested while doing a live video of the protest action in Port of Spain on Tuesday that Police Commissioner Gary Griffith and National Security Minister Stuart Young said was well orchestrated and aimed at destabilising the country.
The elder Bakr told reporters that he had no indication why his son had been arrested and speculated it may have been “for telling people to calm down”.
One person was killed during the protest on Tuesday and the police in a statement said that they had foiled a “well-orchestrated plan to destabilise the country” and had arrested 72 people.
The statement said that “investigations are underway” to determine the cause of the woman’s death on Tuesday. (CMC)
