Abu Bakr charged with murder

Abu Bakr, who led the 1990 coup in Trinidad and Tobago, has faced various charges over several years but has never once been convicted. (File photo)

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Thursday September 30, 2010 – Twelve years after the death of a 22-year-old man, Black Muslim leader Yasin Abu Bakr has been charged along with a former member of the Jamaat al Muslimeen with the murder.

The decision to file the charge came yesterday at the end of an inquest into the murder of Israel Sammy who was beaten and shot by a group of masked men who took him from his home in the early hours of May 20th, 1998.

Coroner Nalini Singh, who presided over the inquiry which began in February last year, has concluded that there was sufficient evidence to charge Bakr and Brent Miller.

The two, who were present when the ruling was delivered, were taken into custody and away from the court. They later appeared two hours later before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar where the charge was read.

They were not allowed to plead to the indictable offence and are set to return to court on October 6th. 

Abu Bakr, who led the 1990 coup in Trinidad and Tobago, has faced various charges over several years but has never once been convicted. He found himself in the spotlight again recently when the government announced its decision to launch a Commission of Inquiry into the insurrection and again when several of his properties were auctioned off to pay for damages caused during the incident.

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