Thursday 15th December, 2005

As the inquiry into allegations of sedition and terrorism against Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr continued yesterday, defence attorney Pamela Elder, SC, grilled the complainant, Insp Christopher Holder.

Holder, who is attached to the Port-of-Spain CID and Criminal Records Department, spent more two hours on the witness stand.

But up till the end of yesterday’s proceedings, the cross-examination still had not finished.

Holder’s cross-examination will continue when the hearing resumes on Monday, along with the prosecution’s final witness who is expected back in the country this weekend.

Holder was responsible for the investigations into the alleged incident and subsequent laying of charges against Bakr.

Bakr is before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates Court, charged with an act of terrorism, three charges of incitement and one count of sedition following his Eid sermon at his Mucurapo mosque on November 4 on the collection of zakaat (tax).

Bakr, 64, is also charged alongside Oluyemi Abdul Basit, 22, and Taheer Ali, 19, with the unlawful possession of a firearm (a high-powered rifle), 569 rounds of ammunition and a prohibited weapon (a hand grenade), after a raid at the Jamaat’s Mucurapo Road, St James, compound.

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