(Trinidad Express) – YASIN Abu Bakr, leader of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen, was yesterday ordered by a High Court judge to pay the State after a lawsuit of wrongful arrest he filed was thrown out of court.
Justice Frank Seepersad deemed the constitutional motion for malicious prosecution taken by Bakr “inappropriate”.
Bakr filed the motion after he and Brent “Big Brent” Miller had a charge of murder against them discontinued by the office of the Director of Public Prosecution in October 2010.
Bakr and Miller had been charged with the murder of mechanic Israel Sammy on September 29 after Coroner Nalini Singh sitting at the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court concluded there was enough evidence to charge them with the killing.
Sammy, of Dacca Street, Boissiere Village, Maraval, was taken from his home by masked men around 2 am, beaten and shot dead behind his home on May 20, 1998.
In delivering his ruling, Justice Seepersad said “the circumstances of the instant action are inappropriate and amounts to an abuse of the Court’s process. The claimant is to pay to the defendant the costs of this application which is to be assessed in default of agreement.”
Bakr was present in court for the ruling in the Hall of Justice, Port of Spain. The charges were dropped after the DPP Roger Gaspard said there was not enough evidence to proceed with the case. Gaspard had said he was of the view the case did not have any “evidential basis” for the State to move forward, and that the evidence against both men was insufficient.
Justice Seepersad said in his ruling that Gaspard had acted “within the parameters of his authority” when he discontinued the charge Bakr.
