Illness delays Bakr trial

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – The trial of Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Imam Yasin Abu Bakr for sedition has been delayed for five days due to illness.Bakr, 72, is charged with promoting a terrorist act, sedition and four other offences, arising out of comments he made during an Eid-ul-Fitr sermon in 2005. He is also charged with two counts of inciting a riot, demanding money by menace and inciting others to breach the peace. When the matter came up in the Port of Spain Third Criminal Court at the Hall of Justice on Wednesday, Abu Bakr’s attorney, Wayne Sturge, told Justice Mark Mohammed that Bakr was ill. A medical certificate was submitted on his behalf. Sturge asked that the court adjourn the matter to Monday, in anticipation of Bakr’s recovery. More than 700 potential jurors were summoned for the selection process. They were all accommodated in the Convocation Hall at the basement level of the Hall of Justice as the courtroom could only accommodate just about 100 people. Mohammed was able to communicate with them via a live video link. The process for selecting the nine jurors who would form the main panel and the six alternates may begin on Monday. Mohammed told the potential jurors it is crucial to the administration of justice that they be honest, patient, fair-minded and come to a verdict based on the evidence alone and not on emotion. He informed the jurors that many of them may not be eligible to sit on the panel and invited them to say to the court whether they fell into any of the categories of persons exempt. Among the 11 witnesses scheduled to testify on behalf of the State are media workers Mano Ragbir, a cameraman who worked at television station CNC3 and journalist Sampson Nanton, deputy head of news at CNC3. Leading in Abu Bakr’s defence is British Queen’s Counsel Martin Hicks while Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal will lead attorneys Renuka Rambhajan and Shelly-Ann Gaja- dhar in presenting evidence on behalf of the State. (CMC)