Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr has lost his appeal over two failed lawsuits against the State relating to a murder charge in 2010 for which he was eventually freed.
In an oral judgment delivered at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain, yesterday, appellate judges Rajendra Narine, Prakash Moosai and Judith Jones dismissed Bakr’s appeal and ordered him to pay the State’s legal cost for defending it.
Bakr filed the appeal in July after High Court Judge Frank Seepersad threw out his constitutional motion and malicious prosecution claims which he described as an “abuse of process.”
Seepersad ruled that Bakr had failed to adduce evidence to show that his constitutional rights were infringed by coroner Nalini Singh when she ordered that he and Brent “Big Brent” Miller be charged with murder at the conclusion of a coroner’s inquest into the death of 22-year-old mechanic Israel Sammy in September 2010.
Sammy, a former member of Bakr’s organisation, was shot dead behind his home at Valot Street, Boissiere Village, Maraval, on May 20, 1998.
Seepersad also said Bakr provided no evidence to support his claim that Singh used a flawed process in coming to her decision, which was eventually overturned one month later when Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard said that there was insufficient evidence to sustain the charge.
In their judgment the three-member appeal panel ruled that they could find no fault with Seepersad’s reasoning.
Last year, Seepersad awarded Bakr a meagre $5,000 in compensation in another malicious prosecution case against the State. In that case, Bakr was suing in relation to arms and ammunition charges which were brought against him and two of his followers after a rifle, a hand grenade and a large cache of ammunition was alleged found in the Jamaat’s Mucurapo Road headquarters.
While he ruled in favour of Bakr in that case, Seepersad only awarded the meagre compensation as he said that Bakr did not suffer more damage to his reputation than he had already from his involvement in the infamous 1990 attempted coup.
Bakr was represented by Joseph Sookoo and Delicia Helwig, while Jagdeo Singh represented the State.